Sylux: Origins
by Tyrannolodon
Summary: The story of how a Cylosian boy grows to become the infamous bounty hunter and scourge of the Galactic Federation known as Sylux. Set before, during, and slightly after Zero mission. Completed, has been given a spruce up. Samus/Sylux ship tease abounds!
1. Prologue

Sylux: Origins

On the world of Cylosis; capital of the thriving Cylosian Reich, a great power on the cosmic scene; an infant boy was born to parents Heinrich and Eva Sanders, coincidentally within the same 24 hour period as a infant girl native to K-2l in the year 126,789 A.D; this boy would be named Samuel. Heinrich was Kanzler of the Reich, a powerful man who held most of the political power in the reich and only answered to the Kaiser, who at the time was Fredreich LVIII.

He had done his best to ensure that his nation, which held eight times less planets than the galactic federation and had a mere quarter of it's population, would have the most profitable diplomatic situation possible. He had tried to play the four cosmic superpowers, the Galactic Federation, the Space Pirate Confederacy, the Kriken Empire, and the Vhozon Kingdom against one another in the diplomatic court while secretly picking away at their holdings and subsuming other great, regional, and lesser powers.

It turned out that though Heinrich did his best to ape Bismarck's diplomatic style, his best was certainly not enough. The galactic federation chairman at the time was an alien who was chomping at the bit for an opportunity to go to war, and he used Heinrich's bungled diplomacy as a cover for a secret military buildup to topple the Reich. But what of Samuel? The boy was well adjusted, and had the best of what life had to offer, as is natural for the only child of a head of government. But some time after he turned three, his life was about to change for the worse.


	2. Cylosian days

It was a sunny mid-summer's day on Cylosis, and Samuel was in the backyard of the Kanzler palace, playing a rousing game of tag throughout the verdant green gardens with some friends. The sun's warm rays reflected off of his golden hair and gave a rather startling glisten to his deep blue eyes, though his pale skin clearly had not seen it's rays too often. "You're it" a five year old friend of the boy managed through excited pants as he caught up to the younger Samuel and touched him on shoulder after having surprised him by coming through a topiary.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Samuel protested with a small pout. "No wule 'gainst comin' through the bushes." His friend returned as he folded his arms and stood fully upright. "Well now there is, Will" the blond toddler shot back, looking at his taller companion who shook his honey blond hair covered head and giggled. "I'm older then you, I make the wules." Will responded with a smile. "But my Dad's the Kanz-Kan...big boss!" Samuel retorted, verbally fumbling with his father's title and going red in the face when Will laughed at his inability to pronounce it properly.

"I'm older and bigger then you Sam, you don't get ta make the wules." Will informed Samuel before tackling him and pushing him to the grass covered ground and lifting up his shirt to expose Sam's stomach before tickling him. "H-h-hey s-heheh-stop!" Samuel barely managed between laughs. "I'll only stop if ya say you're wong!" Will informed Sam. "O-heehee-okay okay hehehe I'm wrong." Samuel chuckled out, at which point Will got off of him and allowed the smaller boy to readjust his white shirt.

But Sam's young ears soon picked up the sounds of conversation, so he and his friend sat upright and turned their heads as the source of the noise made itself apparent. It was his father, a tall man dressed in rather...anachronistic to say the least; Prussian Officer's dress and sporting a distinctive golden van dyke walking side by side with an tremendously tall and lanky being whose tear drop shaped head floated above it's chest with no apparent neck.

The other being had a silvery exoskeleton and a single yellow...eye and no other apparent facial features on it's head, though it had a noticeable gash in it's exoskeleton to the right of it's central eye. What Samuel didn't know was that this being was an Alimbic, one of the very, very few who had escaped their civilization's demise at the hands of Gorea 10,000 years ago. To the three year old child, he was simply known as Uncle Stretch, a very bizarre and frequent visitor to his father.

"I am telling you Heinrich, keep on your course, everything will be fine." Uncle Stretch told Heinrich, who despite standing at 6'6, was dwarfed by the Alimbic whose lanky form brought itself up to eleven feet in height. "But my spies are telling me that the Galactic Federation is preparing for war." Heinrich protested as the two walked through the Garden, with Uncle Stretch holding out one of it's clawed fingerless appendages to allow a bird to perch upon it.

"And I am telling you that it is simply more saber rattling." Uncle Stretch responded, his voice coming out of a special electronic modulator that created a highly digital tone, not unlike the famed bounty hunter Ghor's. "I have been following your advice for years, and well...I'm just unsure of myself...what should I do?" Heinrich answered, waving his arms around, showing a level of anxiety he never displayed in public.

"You simply need to continue with what you are doing now...I assure you it will be alright, you had the wisdom to repair my broken form so many years ago old friend...remember when you found my crashed ship and dissuaded those scientists who wished to cut me open or lock me away? That was when I knew that you had wisdom Heinrich, you need only realize it for yourself." The Alimbic informed Samuel's father reassuringly as he looked at the swallow that had perched itself on his outstretched hand.

"I...suppose you are right...now...I have some affairs to attend to...I was glad to have this chat with you." Heinrich informed the Alimbic with a nod as he headed back for the chancellery. The Alimbic then turned to Samuel and Wilhelm after watching Heinrich walk back to his palace for roughly three seconds. "Yes, I was aware of your presence for the whole time little ones. Your youthful minds broadcast much in the way of telepathic noise." The Alimbic informed the two cheerily.

"The rest of you can come out too." He continued, directing this comment to the rest of Samuel's friends who emerged from their various hiding places. "What were you talking about with father?' Samuel asked nervously, rocking back and forth on the heels of his polished black shoes. "Important government matters, you're a bit too young to understand them." The Alimbic informed Samuel as he kneeled down, though his Torso alone was a good deal taller than the toddler.

"Awww, everyone tells me I'm too little to do anything...it's not fair..." Samuel protested as he folded his arms. "While you are indeed smart, creative, and given the best education around, you are still a three year old...It is hard to take someone as undeveloped as you are seriously." Uncle Stretch told Samuel as gently as he could. "But I'm not a baby!" Samuel shot back. "But you are a toddler, a remarkably verbose toddler, but still ...a neophyte..." the old Alimbic informed.

"Here, let me show you something." Uncle Stretch offered to the nods of the children as he telekinetically brought down a bird's nest and showed him the birds within it. "See this bird? The one who has sprouted feathers before the others? Though he has developed ahead of the rest, he still can't be expected to fly." Uncle Stretch told Sam as he lifted the baby bird telekinetically and dropped it, though he caught it and placed it back in it's nest which he returned to the tree branch upon which it sat.

"You are like that hatchling...you may be a remarkable toddler, but you still cannot be expected to fly." Uncle Stretch told Sam. "But that's silly, I'm not a bird, I couldn't fly even if I was a grown up!" Samuel shot back sharply but not angrily. "See? You do not yet even understand simile, neophyte." The Alimbic pointed out. In the face of this, though Samuel didn't understand some of what he had been told, he realized that he had lost the argument and bowed his head.

Stretch noticed this and cocked his floating head and placed his fingerless "hand" at Samuel's chin and tilted his head upwards. "Do not let this drag your spirits down Samuel...You have great potential, I am sure of it. You will grow up to be a fine man, mark my words." The ancient alien informed the young blond who nodded as he removed his hand from his chin.

"Now, if my knowledge of your eating customs is correct, I think it's about time for lunch. Now...I must be off, I will see you later." Stretch told Samuel as he stood up to his imposing full height that made him seem like a walking mountain to the young kids gathered around him. It was indeed time for lunch, as Sam's checking of his watch confirmed. He called forth his friends who swarmed into his house.

He managed to pull himself into his chair and sit himself down next to his mother, Eva Sanders. She was a radiant and lovely woman with long golden locks that went down to the bottom of her shoulder blades; she looked at her only son and gave him a warm smile. "Did you have fun Samuel?" She asked to the nodding of her son. "Yes! Uncle Stretch talked to me too! I saw him talking to father." Sam informed his mother, who was a good deal more active in his life than his father.

"Ah Uncle Stretch, what did he teach you?" Eva asked her head tilted. "He said that I'm still a neophyte but he also said that I'm a smart one!" Sam said with a smile, trying to massage his still somewhat wounded pride. "And he's right, you are a smart little boy, now get ready for lunch. You know how to eat like a big boy right?" she asked with a smile full of maternal affection.

"_Ja!_" Samuel affirmed, trying to impress his mother with his knowledge of the ancient and rather dead language of German, which like most other languages of the Earth died out in favor of English, which had already become humanity's language of business. "Ah I see you're picking up on your German. That's very good!" Eva stated as she clapped her hands together just as the servant drones arrived to serve lunch.


	3. Shadowed conspiracies

Chapter 3: Shadowed conspiracies

Space

Meanwhile, in the depths of space, some ten thousand light years away, at a border system between the Cylosian Reich and the Federation; the Galactic Federation was massing its fleets. Truth be told, the name Galactic Federation was something of a misnomer, with millions of galaxies in it's fold, but still the Federation amassed it's navy.

One man was over watching this affair, a hawk of a officer named Admiral James Ryker. He oversaw this secret gathering of men and materiel from the bridge of the G.F.S Elysium. He was heading the shadowed plot to murder the heart of a thriving nation. He was the hand holding a cloaked dagger that would be stabbed into the beating center of an empire. He stood next to one man, Vice Admiral Castor Dane.

"Ryker, this is just...wrong...not only are we shipping off to destroy an planet full of innocent people to stroke the egos of some pencil pushers, we're stripping our own systems of picket fleets and leaving them open to attack. Planets like K-2L, Vexus, Kralar, and Nwobong are now undefended!" Dane told his superior officer who dismissed his concerns with a wave of his hand.

"Please, the Cylosians had this coming to them, toadying up to the Space Pirates and Krikens while nibbling at our heels and snatching various border systems. Why, if it weren't for the Chozo two months ago, the people of K-2L with be greeting each other with 'guten tag' among other things. Besides, we're talking about the descendants of the Nazis here, people who worship Prussian militarism." Ryker responded as he stared out into the inky void of space.

"Listen to yourself talk Ryker, not only are you trying to rationalize what amounts to genocide you are failing at it! These are still people we are talking about! And what's more than that, you're planning on deploying that freak!" Dane shouted, filled with fiery rhetoric, uncharacteristic of the typically gruff and reserved commander. "Dane, I think you ought to remember that I am the ranking officer, and I don't think that Frank appreciates the freak comment." Ryker grinned as the massive power armor clad behemoth stepped into the bridge.

Frank was the Federation's answer to the much feared Space Dragon Ridley, one of the dreaded enforcers of Space Pirate High command. He was a combination of cybernetics, power armor technology, and genetic engineering; creating a twenty four foot tall mountain of metal and muscle that would make the Hulk cry for mommy. His unblinking neon blue visor belied his cruel and vicious nature and hid a truly hideous face.

"Somebody call?" Frank snarled through his jagged teeth. "I did, Frank get ready, you have a lot of killing to do..." Ryker smiled as he clapped his hands together. "Sounds like fun...heheheh..." Frank laughed from behind his visor, his massive rounded pauldrons swiveling as he figdeted with his massive right arm mounted AstroMag cannon and left arm mounted side-arm blade.

"See what I mean? The usage of psychopathic brutes like him goes against everything the Federation stands for!" Dane protested his idealism showing through and through. "Dane, don't be naive...war is brutal business, so brutes are exactly the kind of people we need...now...ensign, ready the hyperjump, we're going Jerry hunting." Ryker scoffed before barking an order at an Ensign who relayed the command to the rest of the fleet.

Soon, the mass of chrome stretched itself out into infinity as they sped towards Cylosis at obscene velocities, but they tripped a hyperspace warning beacon on the last leg of their journey, giving their targets time to prepare...but still, they massively outnumbered the guard of the homeworld of Cylosis, who had not expected any company any time soon.


	4. Doomsday

Back on Cylosis

And thus began what would become Cylosis' doomsday. "Ma'am...enemy ships inbound...they're from the Galactic Federation...get to safety now!" urged one of Eva's aides as she discussed some important matters with friends. She immediately bolted up and urged her friends up as she sought out her son. She needed to get him to shelter, before it was too late.

She rushed outside as Silvery shapes began to emerge from hyperspace and drift into Cylosis' orbit, she soon bumped into her husband who was discussing the emergency defence of the planet with several military officers. "Heinrich, where is Samuel? I need to get him to safety!" Eva shouted at her husband who stared at her blankly as he tried to process what she had said in the midst of all the information he had to process.

"Samuel? He's in the backyard! Get him out of here now! Eva, I fear that today will be our doomsday...I am sorry for allowing this to happen..." Heinrich informed his wife, his voice filled with guilt and regret. "Heinrich...it is not your fault..." Eva said before she embraced her husband and engages with one last lip lock with him before rushing out into the yard with aides trailing her.

"Sam! Come with me! Now!" Eva shrieked at her only son who looked at the shapes filling up and darkening the sky with dread and awe as they began to vomit forth smallcraft and dropships. She then scooped up her child while her aids grabbed his friends and rushed over to an personal aircraft, boarding it and having an aide turn it on while anti-air and anti-orbital defences kicked in, letting loose a barrage of powerful projectiles and beams into the air to repel the invaders while the Cylosian home guard fleet and air wings scrambled to protect their fatherland.

"Mom, what's happening?" Samuel asked as black clouds of flak appeared overhead while Federation fighters swooped downwards, escorting bomber wings while the capital ships bombarded key facilities. "Doomsday...but don't worry Sam, I'm taking you somewhere safe." Eva assured her son, tears streaming down her eyes as the Federation attacked her beloved homeworld.

At the same time, the hulking armoured frame of Frank descended onto the surface, after having jumped down from orbit and used his back mounted rocket pack to slow down his descent at the last few seconds. Several Cylosian home guardsmen, equipped in some of the finest suits of power armour mass produced by the Reich, whose helmets resembled a long-nozzle gas mask-pickelhaube combination appeared to try and stop the chrome behemoth, but Frank would have none of it.

He pointed and fired his massive AstroMag cannon and eradicated them all with one sweep of it's purple lance of energy. He then rose to his feet and growled as fire blossomed all around him. He was tasked with eradicating the Sanders family...and he had picked up the trail of Eva...He grinned beneath his one way neon blue visor and activated his rocket pack once more and flew off in pursuit of their aerocraft. He regarded the escorting fighters not as a threat, but as "appetizers" so to speak.

"Fraulein, we're detecting a small incoming vehicle, we're sending off some fighters to intercept." Eva's robot aide informed her as they swerved to avoid incoming anti-aircraft artillery fire. As most children of his age would in his situation, Samuel began to cry out of sheer fright, burying his face in his mother's embrace while chaos and death ran rampant all around him. Eva tried her best to calm her son as they approached their destination, but her attempts were foiled when one of the fighters was sent crashing to the ground by a purple lance of energy spearing it through the center.

This resulted in a blossoming fireball that jolted Eva and Samuel's transport as it neared it's destination, causing Samuel to cry even more, even as their craft landed. But by this time Frank had caught up to them and landed his metal clad feet onto the ground with a loud clank. Frank then stood upright and snarled forth his greetings "The name is Frankenstein, but most junk call me Frank. You're a marked woman blondie, you and your brat...now to introduce you to the reaper...heheheheh."

Eva realized that Frank needed to be distracted if Samuel were to live, so she bravely stood up to face the giant while urging one of her mechanical aides to take Samuel into the impenetrable bunker complex while she and her guards stood to face the giant. She motioned for an aide to hand her a breastplate that once attached to her began to unfold into a complete set of cylosian power armour.

She withdrew a modular assault rifle and began to fire long beam shots at the monster while her guards further distracted the beast. "Ah maternal instincts, too bad I'm still going to kill both of you little blond rats." Frank scoffed dismissively as he withdrew his weaponry. Sam looked back at his mother; eyes widened as Frank laughed and extended his sidearm mounted blade from his left hand and cleaved many of the guards in half, the curved blade gliding through shielding, metal, and flesh with ease.

His mother's shielding stood up though, and allowed her to fire off a charged missile shot into Frank's helmeted face, causing his shielding to flare and make him stagger. In retaliation Frank finished her off with a charged AstroMag shot, causing Sam to shout a single "NO!" as the impenetrable blast shield doors of the bunker sealed him off from the outside world.

Frank snarled with rage when his scans confirmed that none of his weaponry would allow him to enter the Bunker, but he decided that he'd at least get the other Sanders, at which point he rocketed off to the Chancellery arriving there in a matter of thirty minutes and finding the elder Sanders fighting off dozens of Galactic Federation Marines and army troopers, and winning.

Frank growled and fired off a charged Astromag missile shot, not caring that friendly soldiers were mixed in with the Cylosians, but Heinrich was a canny warrior, and his powersuit allowed him to side dash away from the missile along with his guards, causing it to eradicate the federation Soldiers.

The Cylosians then fired off charged missile shots from their modular battle rifles that forced Frank Backwards, but at this point he looked up and fired off a violet AstroMag pulse into a loadbearing part of the structure before flying off, causing the chancellery to collapse upon Heinrich. At this point, he fired off fully automatic AstroMag bursts, sending forth orbs of purple energy that levelled the rest of the building and finished off Heinrich's guards, though he saw that the man himself was still alive, clinging onto the mortal coil..

"You've got grit...but grit alone ain't pulling you out of this Sanders..." Frank muttered coldly as he executed the dying Heinrich with a burst from his AstroMag cannon. "Job's done Ryker...anything else you need me for?" The muscular behemoth snarled through his commlink. "Kill as much as you like." Ryker responded over the commlink, telling him exactly what he wanted to here.

Frank then began to laugh as he took off into the air, off to partake in the slaughter of innocents. He killed many on that day, he and the federation killed everyone on that planet, and when they were done, they pummelled it from orbit, throwing up huge clouds of dust that blotted out the sun and caused the temperatures of the planet to plummet until it started to slip into a new ice age. Hours turned into days and the Federation departed, leaving a scarred, frigid world behind.


	5. Retrieval

But within a shelter, solidly built and graded for direct hits by orbital bombardment grade weaponry, with shielding and ample supplies for thousands to survive in it for decades. Far, far more than a little boy and some robotic aides needed to eke out a living. Currently the aides were trying their best to soothe little Samuel as tears poured from his eyes. However, the sound of doors unlocking soon echoed throughout the bunker, and the lanky form of Uncle Stretch and a few other Alimbics stepped inside.

"Our sensors had detected human life signs in this building..." One of the Alimbics told the scarred old Alimbic who telepathically swept the area and picked up a familiar signal. "Samuel..." he whispered to himself as he opened the chamber that Samuel had made his dwellings in. He found the boy, currently bawling his eyes out with his face buried in the arm of a sofa and scooped him up and psionically lulled him into sleep.

"I have made a terrible mistake...and Cylosis has had to pay for it...but I shall make amends, I shall give little Samuel what he needs to have his revenge...find me the best power suit within this bunker that you can and bring it to me, one day when the neophyte is old enough, he will learn to wear it...I shall teach him the ways of both the Alimbic and the Cylosian warrior...and raise him as my own..." Uncle Stretch informed one of his companions as he cradled Samuel in his arms, walking to his ship while Samuel's robotic aides followed.

"What shall we do with the drones' sir?" One of the Alimbics asked. "Let them come...Samuel shall need all the companionship he can get..." Uncle Stretch told his slightly shorter companion as he stepped into his ship, which ever so vaguely resembled a great stag beetle made of silvered bone. The ship's ramp lifted up as soon as everyone had entered and the entire vessel rose into the air, leaving the planet behind as it activated its hyperdrive heading to parts unknown.

Some of the very small population of remaining Alimbics however, questioned the wisdom of bringing a frail human on board. "His kind is frail, especially at such an early stage of development, he won't survive the places we are going to go and he will not be able to measure up to our warrior culture." One Alimbic told Uncle Stretch. "Then we are going to have to toughen him beyond the limits of his species..." the old Alimbic informed his comrade.

"You are not suggesting the nanite infusion are you?" he asked, turning his floating head towards the old warrior. "I am...it will improve him far beyond the limits of the human species...and give him what he needs to survive and take his revenge...now, allow me to bring him over for his infusion...while he still sleeps..." Uncle Stretch answered as he brought the still sleeping form of Samuel towards a chamber full of tools and various apertures of medical science.

Uncle Stretch glided over to a console and quickly input a series of commands that brought forth a syringe filled with a nanite solution that the Alimbic quickly inserted into one of Samuel's veins, in an instant the nanites began to flow into his bloodstream and self replicate. They would be a part of him for the rest of his life, repairing any damaged tissue, fighting disease, building up his body, and enhancing his physical attributes.

"When you wake neophyte, I will place you on the path to revenge...it is the least I can do to atone for my error..." Uncle Stretch murmured to himself as he removed the syringe from it's place in Samuel's arm. Soon enough, the psionically induced slumber wore off and Samuel began to awake, he rubbed his tired eyes and opened them, seeing Stretch, some drones, and a few other Alimbics.

"Wh-where's mommy, daddy, and all of my friends?" Samuel whimpered. "I am sorry, but...they are dead...the Federation has scoured your world...you and a few robotic aides are all that is left of them...but worry not...justice shall be served, and you shall be the implement with which it is served." Uncle Stretch told the golden haired child.

"B-b-but yo...you said I was...was just a toddler..." Samuel pointed out. "Indeed I have, but I also told you that you have great potential...but for now, you should rest, you have much to learn tomorrow, for I shall raise you in the ways of both the Cylosian and Alimbic warrior...so that you may have the revenge you so richly deserve," the scarred Alimbic replied as Samuel nodded and slowly drifted back into sleep, he was very tired.


	6. First hunt

Ten years later

Over the course of a decade, Samuel had grown into a remarkable boy, he had received much training both in and out of his suit in the ways of both Human and Alimbic warriors. Currently he was doing some target practice with his modular battle rifle, wearing his rather distinctive Alimbic modified Cylosian Elite Commando battlesuit. He spotted a psychobit and fingered the trigger, firing at the silvery drone and letting off two four round bursts and causing it to explode. He then began to sweep the room with power beam shots as more psychobits began to appear.

One after another fell, but one green Psychobit mk.1 snuck up behind him and hit him in the back three times with it's battlehammer, ending the training exercise and causing his suit to dissipate back into it's energy state along with his rifle, leaving him in his black coloured interface suit. "Samuel, you need to watch your radar at all times...had this been an actual battle you would have been killed..." Uncle Stretch informed the golden haired teenager.

"But I still had plenty of shield energy left! I could have turned around and blasted that psycho-bit! Easy!" Samuel protested as he stood up and wiped the sweat off of his brow. "And what if instead of a battle hammer they had used a sniper rifle or an imperialist? You would be without your suit with nothing but interface suit shielding and an paralyzer pistol to defend yourself." Uncle Stretch pointed out before letting loose a sigh.

"Neophyte...before you can have your revenge on the greatest power in the cosmo-" the Alimbic started before he was interrupted by an exasperated Samuel. "My name is not Neophyte! I know it's my title as some hero of prophecy, but it is not my name!" He shouted back at his guardian, who merely sighed. "Samuel...I know that this is hard, but I want you to be ready for everything before I let you risk your life out in the field..." Stretch informed his young charge.

"But I'm not a baby anymore stretch, I'm thirteen now...you've trained me for ten years now and I'm itching for a mission!" Samuel breathed out, his startling blue eyes and smooth golden hair standing out against his pale skin. "Perhaps it is time that you get a full test of your abilities Samuel...but you will need a bounty hunter name...Sam or Samuel doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of enemies...much less a title like Neophyte...allow me to think of a name for you...in the meantime, practice a bit more..." Uncle Stretch informed Samuel as he pondered of a true title for his little charge.

"Alright Uncle." Samuel beamed as he reactivated his suit in a flash of blue light and practiced his skills against more psychobits and turrets. In the meanwhile, the Alimbic pondered various names, but he decided to keep it simple, Samuel's initials he decided would do...nobody really knew his name anyway, so it would be kept a secret.

"Samuel...what do you think of the title...S.V.S?" Stretch asked as Samuel jumped onto the back of a guardian and shot out its cranial unit with some charged shots. "That sounds awesome! So what's my first job?" Samuel said as the training drones were abruptly stopped by a single telepathic command. "There is a job offer from a private contractor who wishes to remain anonymous...Take as much data from the terminals in the regional headquarters of planet Darwin... then meet him at a location that will be disclosed upon accepting...this will be rather dangerous, are you sure you want to accept this?" Stretch asked with his arms folded, his floating head turned down to face the young bounty hunter.

Not to his surprise, Samuel accepted enthusiastically with an energetic nod. "Yeah! You've trained me to be the best Stretch! I can handle the police, it's not like I'm going to be dealing with the army or the marines or anything right?" Samuel retorted, full of youthful confidence and exuberance, and perhaps some arrogance even. He was eager for his first chance to strike back at the people who had scourged his homeworld ten years ago.

"Alright Samuel...You remember my instructions for flying a ship right?" Stretch inquired to which samuel nodded affirmatively. "Good, now are you ready to set out now or would you like to wait a little bit before accepting this job?" the Alimbic questioned, kneeling down to the rather tall young man's level. "Yes Stretch, I'm ready." He replied with a warm smile before activating his helmet which appeared in a flash of blue light, obscuring his boyish face behind a long nozzle armored gas mask.

"Alright then, at least lead me to your gunship then..." Stretch told his young charge, taking his hand and leading him to his ship, a lean rather needle shaped long ranged heavy fighter capable of high speed and manoeuvrability, while armed with powerful shielding and a deadly arsenal, the downside was that it was difficult for humans to fly in an atmosphere, but Samuel was indeed superhuman due to his nanite infusion and due to the power suit that he wore. Most bounty hunters preferred the all purpose gunships, but this vessel was a more specialized beast. It was built for killing other fast attack craft, though it could perform other duties in a pinch.

Stretch helped Samuel into his ship and input the coordinates of his first ever destination before climbing out of the vessel. "Please, do come back in one piece Samuel." The Alimbic informed the Neophyte just before leaving the ship. "Don't worry Stretch, you trained me to be the best, and shouldn't you be calling me S.V.S now?" Samuel pointed out as his ship took off and zipped out of the hangar of the Alimbic mothership and entered hyperspace almost immediately.

Though he had seen the colours of hyperspace in innumerable occasions, Samuel still took a moment to drink in the fascinating and utterly dazzling array of colors in the parallel dimension. He checked that he had about two hours to cross the hundred million light years between destinations, so he deactivated his suit which vanished in a blue light. He looked at his hand, covered in his black and grey bodyglove with red orbs on the central part of the back of his hand.

He started to reflect on his last two years, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back in the pilots chair, threading his covered fingers through his medium length blond hair before locking his fingers together and pushing his seat upwards with his leanly muscled legs. He recalled his decade of education and training, his sublimely happy three years of time on his home world, and he thought about going on this mission, for the first time away from the guidance of the Alimbics. In a way, the mothership was his second home, and the Alimbics were his second family.

Being apart from them caused a gnawing emptiness to surface in his teenaged heart...but he suppressed it...he had a job to do...he had a blow to strike against the foul, evil, and corrupt organization that orphaned him. He decided to while away the time by doing some simulated missions. He practiced a simulation that was quite similar to the mission he was doing, and whiled away the hours both training and amusing himself.

When his ship finally slipped into the planet's orbit he had a look at it. It was a planet that was wet in an unusual way. Though there was little surface water, all of it being contained in a sea the size of Alaska that was covered by a vast carpet of protozoans that created an incredibly thick amoebic film, the planet was humid beyond reckoning, as most of the water had simply evaporated, though a good fraction had also become locked underwater. Most of the planet's fauna were liquivores, liquefying the insides of their prey and sucking them through their proboscis.

Samuel's spacecraft slipped through the atmosphere, activating a cloaking field that hid it from radio, micro, and infrared rays and slipping into the normal traffic. The ship then landed in an spaceport about thirty miles off from the Police headquarters. His ship's A.I then hacked into the local registry, easily cracking it's security and evading it's detection systems and created false documents for itself.

Samuel then exited his ship from the bottom entry which lowered him to the ground and set him on the ground. Samuel scanned through the typical crowd of people in a busy spaceport and then began to make his way to the exit. Bounty Hunters and mercenaries were a fairly common sight, so Samuel didn't attract too much unnecessary attention. He snuck out of the space port, going around the customs department before reviewing his map.

He still had some distance to go, so he decided to start on his journey immediately. As he trekked through the city, he noticed a federation police patrol, so he did his best to melt into the crowd as the vehicle passed through. He had committed no crimes, but it was best to be on the safe side. After all, the Federation was waging a war of extermination against the Cylosian Reich, and wearing their dress was probably not the smartest idea.

His attempt at hiding failed quite miserably, as an officer was quite quickly able to spot him and called him for a halt, believing him to be some sort of agent. In a panic, Samuel tried to shove his way out of the crowd, but though he was superhumanly strong, capable of benching two tons without his suit, his low mass made certain that he would have to struggle with each shove.

He ducked into an alleyway and leapt over a fence to lose the police officer, melting away into the confusing wave of alleyways between buildings. He breathed in and out and slunk down against a wall. He allowed himself a moment to recuperate and regain his strength before moving out again, making sure he lost his pursuers on his radar.

This time, he managed to sneak through to the police headquarters without incident, and he slipped in through an air duct, it's tight corridors being more accessible to an form fitting power armour clad child like him than it would be to any unarmoured adult. He managed to slip through the air ducts and reach a room filled with terminals, but there were several guards.

He still had an inhibition about killing other sapient life, humans especially. Even with drilling and training, he wasn't totally desensitized to killing his fellow man. He waited, and waited; he whiled away the hours on a simulator, waiting until the guards went on break, at which point he came down from his air duct, pushing in the grille and firing off his paralyzer pistol at the skeleton crew who remained.

He immediately switched to his scan visor and cracked through the encryption, but not before scanning a terminal to deactivate the security cameras. He broke through the encryption guardian the police data base and copied all the data he could into his suit computer before leaping back up and pulling himself into the air duct, taking and putting the grille back into place.

He turned and crawled his way out of the Headquarters, and slipped out the air ducts entrance and slipped into the Alleyways while the police scrambled outside. "Got the slip on them, no fatalities to" the young bounty hunter reminded himself before he walked into a green arm cannon. "No fatalities, yet." Said a distinctly feminine voice with a bit of an Irish accent to it, the voice came from the wielder of the arm cannon, a girl, judging by the armour's curvature and the pitch of her voice probably around his age who wore a primarily yellow suit of power armor with a red helmet and breastplate with a turquoise visor.

He looked at her right shoulder and saw a galactic federation space police symbol, this caused the teenaged Samuel to audibly gulp and reach for his assault rifle; slung across his shoulder, but this caused the girl to press her arm cannon into his ebony plated chest. "I wouldn't." She warned with a slight snarl, but her voice was a bit shaky...inexperienced...probably, but nontheless he raised his hands in a show of surrender.

"First day on the job? You look a little young to be a cop." He responded; betraying a slightly Prussian accent as well as his age range. "And you seem a bit young to be a bounty hunter. It'd explain why I was able to track you so easily. Where'd you get that suit? The Cylosians don't hand off commando armour to any random kid, especially not such a heavily customized suit; unless they really are scraping the bottom of the barrel." She questioned, this time backing him into a wall.

"It's an heirloom, it was in the family, friend of my dad updated it and enhanced it so I could bring down your rotten establishment. You think that Cylosis would burn without somebody wanting to take up revenge?" He inform her, stuttering slightly, oh this was the wrong time to get nervous around a girl he thought. "Cylosian revenge squads rarely get this deep into federation. And there's no way someone as young and amateurish as you would get in. What are you? Twelve, thirteen?" She asks, her visor is set to opaque mode, so he can't see anything beneath it.

"Amateurish? I thought it was part of my charm!" He says, trying to turn the tables on her...but his attempts at wooing her fall flat on their face. "Are you flirting with me? You're a pig you know!" She tells you through angry teeth as she steps up closer to him and gets a real close look at him, scanning him.

He also takes the time to scan her. "Log file: Samus Aran, Newly Registered member of the Space Police. Born on planet K-2L, Samus lived a rather normal life for three years before being orphaned by a surprise Space Pirate raid on July 15th126,792, the same day that the Federation raided Cylosis. She was thought dead with the rest of the planet, but was later found to have been raised by the Chozo on Zebes, who then sent her to join the Space Police to live amongst her own kind. Armoursuit is a modified variation of the famous Chozo battle armour" His scanners say as the pilfer federation databases, including the closed database that he just hacked through.

Her scanners however, lead to far more inconclusive results, while her armour has been registered with the Federation, his wasn't registered with anyone, and he remain anonymous on every level. She doesn't even know what he looked like, or she did until she firmly grabbed his helmet and tore it off, tossing it to the ground so that her scanners can penetrate his suit.

Finally she rescans him, but she seems ever so less sure of herself, it's very slight, but he feels it as a slight loosening of her pressing him into the wall, it lets him breathe a bit deeper. Well, he isn't too shabby in the looks department, if boyish guys were one's thing. He coughs out a bit as he breathes the city air for the first time, he had lived a rather sheltered life and simply wasn't prepared for the feeling of pollution in his lungs; but thanks to the nanites in his bloodstream, he soon adjusted.

"Searching Genetic Databases...match found...Samuel Sanders. Log file: Samuel Sanders was the only son of Heinrich Sanders, Kanzler of the Cylosian Reich. Born on the 20th of April 126,789, he was given the best of what Cylosis had to offer until July 15th 126,792 when the Federation launched a surprise assault on the homeworld of Cylosis after years of deteriorating relationships between the two powers with the catalyst being stated to be Cylosis' latest wave of expansions, in answer to this, Chairman Vogl authorized an assault on the planet, but the Kaiser; determined to prevent the planet from falling into federation hands, detonated a series of nuclear explosives, razing it to the ground. No survivors were found. Samuel's survival makes it likely that he is the last native born Cylosian. Armour technology match found, Armour appears to be of Cylosian Elite Commando Guard make, but shows substantial modification with additions identified as being Alimbic in origin." Her scanners say, at the realization that he shares much in common with her, Samus loosens her pressure significantly, at which point Samuel inhales deeply and coughs out a bit.

Samus takes a moment and reaches for her helmet before pulling it off, informing her superiors that she has found nothing, allowing her the space she needs to speak to this stranger on a more personal level. Samuel slumps down, sitting with his knees raised while Samus sits down opposite to him. He has to admit, Samus has quite a pretty face, and he imagines that she'd turn out to be quite the head turner when she grows up. She appears to notice this beholding and clears her throat audibly.

"Oh...um...sorry..." He says sheepishly, he had never really seen a girl of his species in person until now, when his hormones were starting to act up, but it appeared that Samus was in a similar situation. He knew he was supposed to be attracted to her from what elements of his own species' culture he was able to absorb during his free time, but that only enhanced the awkwardness of the situation.

"That's alright...Samuel is it?" She asks, causing Samuel to blush a bit, surprised and flustered that this girl he just met already knows his name when he went to such lengths to keep it a secret. "Well...this is...just...awkward...awkward...al-alright...howhow...how did you kn-know my name?" He says, tripping over his tongue as his cheeks flush red and he tries to hide his face.

"Genetic analysis, Cylosis may...be...gone but its paperwork is still there...once I got through your suit...I could find your identity..." She informs him, causing him to smile weakly and raise his head. She decides to sit next to him, carrying her helmet along with her to get a better look at her new found friend.

"I can't just let you go, you stole something from the Federation. You have to give something back to us in spades." She tells the boy who gets an idea to both satisfy his hormonal needs and the need to save his skin; he remembered a passage from Sherlock Holmes where Irene Addler got the slip from Sherlock Holmes with a kiss.

"Then how about I give you a kiss? Ja?" He tells her as he takes her by the arms and presses his lips into hers, being met with some initial protest in the form of a muffled grunt, that soon dies away. He then lowers his arms and wraps his arms around her, prompting her to return the gesture and gently open his mouth for her tongue, instinctively probing each other's mouths. It's the first kiss for either of them, and neither of them exactly want to break it off as lust begins to rear it's head in both of their minds, but they soon break off, with Samuel smiling at Samus; who returns it.

"Well, Samuel, I think I could get used to that. Shame we'll have to be enemies." She tells Samuel with a grin. "Well, Sherlock Holmes kind of loved Irene Adler even though he was a detective and she was a crook." Samuel shoots back, returning her grin as he places on his helmet and makes his get away, leaving Samus to place hers back on and laugh a bit as he returns to his ship that takes off, leaving the police empty handed.

He heads off to the disclosed location; his ship activating it's cloaking fields and slipping away past the frantic officers who tried to apprehend him. His needle like ship then touches the ground on a more shady side of the planet, disgorging its teenaged contents who strides out of the bottom entrance with a confident poise. He is greeted by a Space Pirate, of the Zebesian breed and of the Black Commando caste.

He looks at Samuel and snarls forth one question. "Do you have the data?" He says, extending one of his crab-like pincers to accept the physical datastick that Samuel had copied the stolen data into. Samuel however, made sure to have his own copy of the data, so that he'd be able to use it. "Ah, thank you, and your name would be?" The space pirate asks, its red compound eyes getting a close look at his armoured body.

"SVS. Just call me SVS." Samuel answers, returning the much taller pirate's gaze from beneath the red lenses of his helmet. "Alright then, SVS...I am General Weavel...I look forward to doing further business with you." The Space pirate responds with a growl as he hands Samuel the pay in credit sticks. "It was my pleasure." He responds, beaming beneath his helmet as he returns to his ship.

Once Samuel was sure he was away from prying eyes, he deactivated his armour suit, causing it to dissipate in a flash of blue light, leaving him in his black and grey interface suit again. He reviewed his missions, but he fixated himself on Samus...that pretty girl he had met...he felt a bit of an swelling in his lower body, but did his best to ignore it.

He had his ship activate its return home feature and let loose a long exhalation as he slumped into his seat. He found himself wanting to encounter Samus more often, but tried to take his mind off of her by running some simulations; gaming always helped him ease his mind. Soon, he was able to forget about her as he went into all those sims of his.

Eventually, his ship dropped out of hyperspace and docked with the spire shaped mothership, where he exited and greeted Uncle Stretch. "Stretch! I got my first mission success! Totally problem free, I swear those police don't know what they're doing!" He eagerly told the old Alimbic warrior, who nodded. "That is good Samuel...I trust that there were no complications?" The Alimbic asked.

In the face of this question, Samuel decided to write off his encounter with the young member of the police corps as not being a complication, but then remembered that Uncle Stretch could literally read his mind and wasn't fond of when Samuel lied to him. So he ultimately went against it.

"Well, Stretch, I met this girl; about my age...She was a part of the police force." He started only for Stretch to interrupt him. "Her name is Samus right? Or have I plucked the wrong information from your mind? Samuel, you musn't let your desires interfere in your mission...though I admit it is rather adorable that you found a girlfriend the moment you went out." Stretch said with a laugh, causing Samuel to get red in the face with embarrassment almost immediately.

"She's not my girlfriend...I'm not in love with her!" Samuel protested indignantly. "Samuel, from what I understand, at your age and in your species; love and lust are never far apart, and bonds are typically quite shallow when formed at this age. But I will implore you to seek romantic fulfilment with someone who isn't on the enemy team...You know the story of Romeo and Juliette right?" the Alimbic told him, never keeping his one eye off of his protégé.

"Yes Uncle..." Samuel replied sheepishly, averting his eyes from his guardian. "Now Samuel, chin up. You've had a mission success, which is a feat deserving of a reward. I understand that you are fond of chocolate gelato." The Alimbic told him as he motioned to his young charge to follow him into the mess hall.

A day later, Samuel awoke and got up from his bed, quickly activating his interface suit, which appeared over his clothing in a flash of blue light as he stepped out of his quarters. He looked around and headed off to see Uncle Stretch to check if he'd be allowed to go on any missions today. He went to the meeting hall and found his guardian reading some ancient Alimbic telepathic message.

Upon seeing his adopted charge, Uncle Stretch turned to face Samuel. "Yes, I presume that you are asking if there is a second mission for you...and the answer is yes. There is indeed a mission for you to take." His guardian informed him, with Samuel listening with the most eager look on his boyish face.


	7. A hunting we will go

Two years had passed, and Samuel once again woke up from his bed and eased himself out of the covers. He was a bit less enthusiastic than he had been in years past, but he still had that same youthful energy pent up within him. He checked himself in the mirror and dispensed with the morning rituals quickly. He had by now grown into a tall and rather strapping young man, six feet in height; though his facial features remained as boyish as ever, he hadn't any hint of facial hair, which at first struck him as odd, but his mother's side of the family was known to have a high perchance for producing baby faced men.

Once he was ready, he headed off for the main meeting hall behind the bridge of the ship, where he was greeted by one of his long time companions, the Trylux model tutor drone. "Ah hello master Sanders, and how are you today?" The Drone greeted in a polite tone with a slight hint of an upper class Londoner accent, made to be as affable as possible.

To this Samuel smiled. "Well, I'm feeling just prime today, and how about you Trylux?" he responded. "Well Samuel, I am quite pleased that you perform so well in your lessons. Though that pun was truly terrible, a regrettable result of letting you watch Transformers: Beast Wars too much... Though I am still a bit worried about you pursuing your line of work at your age. You are aware that at least a third of all bounty hunters meet a violent demise within a year right?" The Trylux drone asked, it's voice still remaining quite chipper.

"I know, I know, but I was trained by the best. Besides, if I spent all my time worrying about the odds I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to beat them." Samuel responded with a widening smile. "Fair enough, I trust that you are going to see Uncle Stretch right?" the Trylux drone responded as he let Samuel through.

Samuel entered the circular main room and saw that Uncle Stretch was looking at some holograms. "Ah good, you're awake. There is a mission for you. It's from Weavel. Apparently you are to infiltrate a Kriken research base...other Hunters have taken this mission, including Samus." Uncle Stretch informed him, noticing that Samuel's expression briefly brightened at the mention of her name.

If uncle stretch's eye had a pupil, he would be rolling it. At this point, Samuel samuel activated his suit with a clench of his fist, causing it to materialize over his black and grey interface suit in a flash of blue light. "I think I accept. Tell them that SVS is coming." Samuel informed his guardian who let loose a sigh. "You're certainly confident today." Uncle Stretch pointed out as Samuel headed to the hangar.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Samuel shot back with a smile, his helmet appearing over his head with a blue flash. He stepped into the hangar, a vast cavern within the ship and climbed into his needle of a fighter. He set in the coordinates to the Kriken base into his ship's hyperdrive system and soon his vessel rose from the ground and took off like a thunderbolt.


	8. Send in Frank

Elsewhere

On the bridge of the G.F.S Elysium, a hawk of a man stood watching the inky void of space from the bridge of the ship. A chrome plated behemoth came up behind him and spoke out with a voice of thunder. "So Ryker...this SVS kid...he's making the Cylosians antsy...making them forget their place...what do you want me to do about him?" it said through a monochrome turquoise visor.

"Kill him, we can't have him becoming a hero to them. It could raise their spirits and give them the push they need to do enough damage to completely turn public opinion on the Cylosian war. Intel's suggested that he's taken a job to deal with a Kriken base. Hunt him, take his world in your hands and crush it into powder before his eyes, then kill him; slowly and painfully. Let the Jerries know that the Federation will tolerate no enemies. It'll also send a message to the bigger fish, namely the Krikens and Space Pirates. Show no mercy Frank, I'm giving you the full authority to do anything you need to deal with him." Grand Admiral Ryker told the behemoth Frank, who gave off an evil chuckle that shook the bridge.

"With pleasure." Frank responds, smashing one fist into the other's open palm. "Good then Frank, you may deploy at will." Ryker ordered, not once making eye contact with Frank, who swivelled around and stomped off for his ship. Frank soon boarded his personal ship and set off for the Kriken Empire, disengaging from the fleet.


	9. Into the heart of planet Krasgal VI

On the vessel that Samuel had deigned to name the Darkspire, in light of it's shape and the black coat of paint that Samuel gave it, Samuel watched as his ship dropped out of hyperspace in front of a Kriken planet. Like most Kriken worlds, it was overpopulated in the extreme, but it was a military planet first and foremost. The Kriken's preference for the color red was apparent even from space, virtually all colors that could be picked out from here were some hue of red.

It was a painfully dreary sight, but Samuel pressed on. He checked the list of other Bounty Hunters who had taken the job, Ghor, Rundas, Noxus, Spire, Executor, Terridax and a long list of nobodies...He rolled his eyes and opened up a communication channel with Samus to inform her that he'd be touching down soon and inquired as to her location, information that she happily provided at which point Samuel quickly punched in the coordinates for his ship to land on.

His ship glided through the crimson skies of the planet like a dart as it activated it's cloaking field to shield it from the prying Kriken sensors. His ship soon located her vessel, which had landed in an out of the way and run down landing bay, and soon his ship touched down right next to hers.

He stepped out of the vessel and quickly located Samus, who greeted him with a wave of her left hand as she set her visor to translucent mode to allow him to see her eyes. "Well Samuel, how long has it been since I last saw you in person? Two weeks?" She said in a cheery voice, with that slight irish accent that Samuel just loved to hear.

"Yeah, but we've talked in the meantime. We've had what, a dozen video chats? Admit it, you can't stay away from me." Samuel said teasingly to Samus as she came closer, letting loose a little sigh. "I think I remember that you were the one who started all those chats." Samus responded, giving him a playful punch in the right shoulder with her armoured fist.

"Ah, you really do know all the right buttons of mine to push don't you?" Samuel responded, smiling beneath his helmet. "Right so, are we going to do another cooperative mission Sammy?" Samus asked, using the variation of Samuel's name that she knew irked him the most in a playful tone. "Not if you're going to use that name; Samantha." Samuel retorted in an equally playful manner.

"Oh really now?" Samus questioned, tilting her head before giggling, a gesture that Samuel soon returned. Soon enough, Samuel came to his senses and raised his hand out. "Right, right; we should stop laughing and get on task." He barely managed between deep breaths. "Agreed, any suggestions as to where we should go first?" Samus inquired, looking up at the somewhat taller boy.

"Well, the objective is to the north, so I think we should go through the door that is facing North." Samuel suggested, shrugging his shoulders. "Right, but they might be expecting that. So I think we should take a detour and go east, then make our way Northwest. " Samus posited, noting that Samuel didn't seem exactly sure of himself.

"Right, but that could cost us time." Samuel countered, but Samus already had her response in mind. "Not as much time as several firefights with Kriken guards would take." She stated calmly, shooting down Samuel's counter. "Alright then, we'll take your way but if someone beats us to the objective I won't let you hear the end of it." Samuel informed him, grinning beneath his helmet before he felt a soft and playful punch to his right shoulder.

"Oh I'll be right. You can count on it Samuel." Samus told him, returning the Grin as she shot the blue shielded door, causing it to open up, thus allowing the two teenagers access into the room, a long serpentine hallway that had apparently seen better days. "Looks abandoned." Samuel noted "I told you so." Samus responded, feeling a bit of pride that her hunch was correct.

They took a right and headed northwards as they hit a fork in the hallway, encountering little besides tiny harmless vermin and debris. However, as a precaution, Samuel had already taken out his modular assault rifle and was checking his Radar at all times, while Samus kept her left hand on her arm cannon and kept up a similar vigil.

Samuel went through another door and found a large circular room that held several nests. War wasps...Samuel prepared his assault rifle while Samus immediately started firing her arm cannon, downing several war wasps with a barrage of power beam shots. Samuel also released yellow orbs of force, blasting war wasps to shreds. But unfortunately, the pair lacked missiles, so the nests couldn't be destroyed.

"Well, I have a suggestion that I think you'd like to hear Samus." Samuel said as he blasted the wings off of a charging war wasp, ducking beneath another one's launched barb and firing off it's abdomen with a three shot burst, sending the creature squirming to the ground. "Yeah, and that would be?" She asked as she blew off the head of another War wasp and sidestepped a charging warwasp before shooting it's thorax off.

"Run!" Samuel yelled as he stood up and went into a sprint, with Samus following as the two dashed to another door and shot it open. They charged past a hundred meters, firing at the dozens of war wasps that were shooting barbs and charging at them, rolling, jumping and dodging with the two of them running through the open door as it closed behind them, resulting in about a half dozen war wasps splattering themselves on the door.

"That was cutting it...a bit close don't you think...Samuel?" Samus panted out exhaustedly. "Yeah, it wasn't my best call...better than when we...had to run past all those...killer robots on Gorlarm Prime." Samuel retorted, also fatigued from his mad dash. "That incident was so...your fault..." Samus shot back. "How the hell could I have...known that they were twenty feet tall?" Samuel retorted, trying to save face.

"Of come on, all the blame belongs to you...all of it..." Samus concluded as the two stood themselves up and recovered before continuing on their path. "Ah fine..." Samuel grumbled as they headed to the next door, but he found a bunch of Kriken Neophytes, who resembled the triskelion form they had, sans legs.

"Ah nuts..." Samuel breathed out as the large pack of neophytes turned towards the pair and began to worm their way towards them at which point, the two began to fire off their weapons wildly, gunning down many of the neophytes, but they kept on coming until Samus had an idea. "Wait, let me try something..." She said as she fired at the door behind them, opening it, at which point she fired at the door they passed before that one, allowing in the swarm of war wasps, just before the older Kriken juveniles, who had developed into the triskelions that adults could revert into could leap upon the pair.

At this point, Samus and Samuel both ducked out of the way as the two swarms of bugs tore each other to shreds. "Right, let's get out of here." Samuel said, taking Samus' left hand with his own and leading her out of the mess of insectoid limbs and mandibles behind them. When the two entered the next room, they took another moment to catch their breath.

"Holding hands? How sweet of you Samuel..." Samus breathed out, grinning beneath her helmet. "Oh shut up..." He complained half-heartedly as he assessed his surroundings. They were in another hall way where whatever the Kriken equivalent of a cockroach was scurried out of their sights as Samuel helped Samus onto her feet.

"Right, so the objective is about...a kilometer away according to the map." Samuel said as he pulled up his holographic map. "Right then...see any map stations so we won't be fumbling around in these god forsaken tunnels?" Samus asked, looking at his projected map. "Well there's one about thirty meters away due east..." Samuel pointed out.

"Right, we're heading that way...and if we see any emergency teleporter stations, we're going to them...I don't want to have to have to trek all the way through that mess by being teleported to our ship if we run out of shield energy." Samus said, checking her energy tanks and breathing with a sigh of relief to see that they were still full.

"Likewise..." Samuel responded as he heard some very loud and prominent clanking in some distant room. "Must be Terridax..." he muttered when he heard the distinct sound of a plasma chaingun being fired off followed by the loud; ear piercing shriek of dying Krikens. "Ever the subtle one isn't he?" Samus joked, the sarcasm in her voice evident. "Yeah well, if he's drawing their attention then I have no complaints..." He responded with a chuckle as he lead the way down the corridor.

He shot at the door and scanned the room, hearing the distinctive sound of an armour suit upgrade. "Dibs!" Samuel shouted like a small child unwrapping his birthday presents. "Wait...listen closely...there's more than one...We split them 50-50." Samus said, noting the droning of several upgrades.

Samuel checked the name of this room, which translated into arms storage. The upgrades were being stored in various containers, the first of which Samus and Samuel destroyed with concentrated power beam fire, breaking it open to reveal a missile expansion. "Ladies first..." He told Samus who nodded and acquired the upgrade, testing it out by firing it on another crate, revealing another expansion that allowed Samuel to acquire the explosive weapon.

The pair cracked open the other ten crates their weaponry was capable of breaching, revealing four missile tanks and eight missile expansions, allowing the pair to arm up until they had two energy tanks and twenty five missiles each. Finally, there were two Chozo powerup containers which they shot open, revealing charge beams that had clearly been pilfered from Chozo statues.

Samus briefly clenched her fist, obviously outraged that the Kriken had brazenly stolen from her foster species, but she acquired the upgrade and allowed Samuel to come in and take the other. "Well that was rather fortunate. " Samuel noted, but he saw Samus looking at a portion of the ceiling that glinted. "Well, don't count on our luck lasting much longer...I think they know we're here now..." Samus said as she pointed at a Security Camera.

At that point Sirens began blaring and the two looked around for doors, Samus spotted one door guarded by a red missile shield that she blew open, allowing the two to advance through as the Kriken guards began to rush into the area. They soon ran afoul of the massive metallic frame of the heavy war drone turned bounty hunter Terridax; but that's a story for another time.

"Samus, can you turn off those sirens, they're really hurting my concentration..." Samuel asked with Samus nodding and firing off a missile at the blaring siren; shutting it up when the explosive detonated, though the faint sound of Krikens being beaten into a pulp in another room and the sirens in other rooms could be heard.

"So...the map station?" Samus asked, looking up at Samuel. "Ten meters down...quickly; while the big lug behind us is holding off the Krikens and before more of them show up..." Samuel answered, motioning to the Map station door, where the two sneaked off to, entering the door and hiding in a corner together as they heard dozens of Kriken legs pass through the corridor just next to them.

Samuel then took the time to blast out a security camera he noticed with his assault rifle before it could turn to face the two power armor clad teens who let loose exasperated pants. "Reminding you of Gorlarm Prime?" Samus asked, raising her eyebrows as she set her visor to transparent mode. "Can we not talk about Gorlarm Prime? I told you, if I had an inkling that ancient giant death robots were behind the machine uprising I would have done something about it. Let's put that incident on the first kiss thing, a list of things that we do not talk about! Ever!" Samuel said only for Samus to put her left hand on his helmeted mouth.

"Shh...not until the clicking of little feet stops..." She informed him as the Krikens passed into the other room to deal with Terridax. "Alright then...You know, I wish we didn't have to always meet each other in this kind of situation...like a normal date for once would be." Samuel panted out before realizing he had a little Freudian slip. "Oh did I um...say date well uh..." Samuel sputtered out to try and redact his statement.

"It's alright Samuel..." Samus reassured him as the last Kriken guard was heard shrieking and dying, with the sound of large motors being heard behind them. "Right...so, you get that Map data...I'll look for any other Kriken guards..." he informed Samus who nodded and quickly downloaded the map data while Samuel opened the door and looked around, seeing no Krikens and thus giving the coast is clear signal to his partner.

The two nodded and headed to the emergency station, consisting of a emergency teleporter, a recharger, and an ammo station. The two quickly used the ammo and teleporter station, setting their emergency teleporters to the new destination. The two nodded to each other as they headed back into the corridor and advanced another room down.

The two found a magnetic lift that carried Kriken soldiers, but the terminal was still available..."Wait...hold on...I'll reprogram the train to take us to our destination, according to the map, it's connected to the rail system." Samus told Samuel, who nodded as she scanned the terminal giving the idling train a new destination.

She then lead her friend onto the train as it's doors slid close, taking the two of them on the fast track to their destination.


	10. Cat and Mouse

Frank had been deployed to this miserable hive of disgusting vermin for one purpose, kill SVS...He had already exited his ship and was making his way through the facility...walls barely slowed him down, he simply blasted or bulldozed straight through them , snarling as he tried to pick up the trail of his quarry.

He was detecting warm prints on the ground with his thermal visor...but they were too heated to be from anything organic...they were the prints of a machine. He followed the prints to their source and saw a large machine, one of those large robots who made a mess of Gorlarm Prime.

The machine was currently blasting it's way through Kriken Warriors but soon turned to face Frank, who recognized the robot as the bounty hunter executor. "If you're another hunter, then you can piss off, the bounty is mine." Executor snarled, pointing his large double barrelled plasma cannon at Frank while the Krikens turned their weapons to face the new threat.

"I'm not here for the Bounty." Frank announced as he cocked his massive AstroMag cannon. This caused the protoform to snarl in shock as he began to connect the dots. "An assassin? " He exclaimed as he fired off his plasma weapons, causing Frank to stagger backwards while imperialists lanced out and impacted him dozens of times.

Executor then extended his wrist mounted dual autocannons and fired off dozens of shots at Frank, causing him to stagger back even more. But the armor clad behemoth shrugged off the hits, and revealed that he was charging up an AstroMag shot the whole time by firing off an immensely powerful lance of energy, five feet wide from his cannon. This cannon incinerated the Krikens and sent Executor flying backwards into the wall.

Frank then charged up and grabbed Executor by his head and slammed him into the wall and stabbed his left arm blade into Executor and dragged it upwards, bisecting the deceptive construct and leaving him to spark on the floor.

Frank then snarled like a demonic big cat as he advanced, detecting the signal of Chozo and Alimbic technology...he had read the reports that Samuel liked to work with a certain Samus Aran...a favourite of General Malkovich...but to him...if she was with his prey, she would die all the same. He snarled as he smashed through the wall.

He heard the din and noise of battle not too far away...from what he could tell Terridax was busy doing his job in his typical unsubtle manner, but the noise soon stopped, and he heard a maglev train hover off into the distance.

He then smashed through the wall and began to follow the heat prints, he noticed smaller heat prints...human sized ones...and snarled...he was on the right track...and he soon came upon the Maglev train track after smashing through a wall.

He snarled and activated his back mounted thrusters to pursue his victim. He followed the track, hugging closely to it's serpentine twists and turns until he came to the stop that was closest to the hunters' objective...a massive data storage room filled with Kriken plans and research data.

In a more normal mission, he would be the one cracking into that vault and stealing the data, but this time, the data vault couldn't be less important to him. He was on the hunt, following two sets of small and somewhat faint heatprints. SVS...he was a dead man, Frank would make sure of it. He followed the tracks, relentlessly, moving past dozens of Kriken corpses without any heed or concern. He went through another hallway and snarled as he saw some smoking turrets before blasting a hole through the door to continue his pursuit.

He was getting close; his scanner was practically screaming as the unique signature of alimbic technology was getting ever closer. He could practically smell him. He smelled like a coward, Frank thought as he snarled, grinding his shark like teeth against each other. He then lowered himself and rammed through the last wall, spotting the hunter Ghor, who looked like he had just finished a conversation with someone. He checked his thermal visor and found several series of heat prints, including that of his quarry; they were fresh...very fresh.

"And who are you?" Ghor inquired, turning the massive frame of his armorsuit to face the armor clad behemoth. "Me? I'm the grim reaper...the bringer of hellfire and the harbinger of the apocalypse...now out of my way old timer, I've got prey to hunt." He growled out in a deep booming voice. "Not a chance." Ghor responded bluntly as he brought forth his dual pincer arm cannons.

"I'm going to give you one chance to just walk away..." Ghor informed Frank as they stood off and faced one another, circling to gain a better position. "You don't match any hunter on record, that makes you either unlicensed, an assassin, or worse...now back off..." Ghor threatened, causing Frank to growl in response. "I'm not backing off until I have SVS' head on a plate, now move or I reduce you to scrap."

"If you're talking about hurting the kid, then you're fresh out of luck." Ghor snarled as Frank roared and tackled him, but the canny bounty hunter rolled himself out of the tackle and stood himself up. As Frank got up out of his roll, Ghor clocked him across the face with a right hook, swinging his massive metallic arm cannon and knocking Frank's head to the side. Frank shrugged off the blow and tackled Ghor, sending them both skidding on the ground, but Ghor once again rolled back onto his feet and grabbed a pillar. "Weak..." Ghor said as he smashed the metallic pillar across Frank's head, sending him reeling backwards.

"Puny!" Ghor continued as he hit Frank across the face with an uppercutting swing, smashing his pillar which he soon abandoned in favor of simply using his pincered arm cannons, ducking under a left swing of Frank's armblade and punching him with a left cross in the back while snarling out "Waste of metal" causing Frank to recoil from the force of Ghor's blow. "Junkyard scrap!" Ghor finished as he stepped away from one of Frank's swings and stabbed his right armblade into his left shoulder, sheathing his blade in energy, allowing him to cut through the shield and his armor.

Ghor then shut off the energy sheathe, ripped out his blade and stepped forward before spinning around and smacking Frank across the head, grabbing it and tossed him over his head, swinging him like a ragdoll. But Frank merely shook his head and got back up, glaring at Ghor as he reared up to his full height. "Are you quite done yet?" He growled as he swatted Ghor, hitting his shield and rotating him around, at which point Frank lifted the bounty hunter over his head and threw him to the side, after which Frank fired off his AstroMag cannon to bury Ghor and put him out of the fight.

"Now where are you, you little brat." Frank pondered, checking his thermal visor to reacquire his mark, looking at the fresh heat tracks and following them to their source. He growled and let loose a roar. "I smell you, boy!" He boomed before he smashed through a series of walls, finding his mark accompanied by his partner. Frank simply roared at SVS, who seemed to lock up in fear, a much deeper kind of fear than the kind most people who saw him felt. But Samus fired off a charged missile at Frank's face, causing him to take a few steps back as she took SVS with her left arm and ran through a door that locked behind them.

For most, a door locked against everything would be an impassable barrier; for him it was a mere inconvenience as he smashed through the wall; just missing them as they took a right in the curving hall way and firing off a barrage of cluster missiles that obliterated the area they stood in mere moments ago in a hailstorm of screaming metal and blossoming fire balls, sending forth a rain of deadly shrapnel, booming shockwaves, and blooming fire in all directions.

He smashed through the corner of the wall as Samus held SVS tightly and leapt down an elevator shaft, apparently screaming at him to snap out of it, her gripping the cable with her left hand while holding SVS in the crook of her right. Sparks flew from her gauntleted hand while the shielded metal grinded against the metal cable that he slashed with a swing of his arm blade, severing it as if it were made out of tissue paper. This caused the once taut cable to loosen and wind away with disastrous consequences, causing his mark and his companion to fall to the bottom of the room.

This apparently snapped SVS out of his catatonic state as he started to reassess his surroundings, allowing him to react and grab onto a ledge leading to another room and reach out to grab Samus while the elevator car screamed into the abyss below them, throwing her into the room before him as he pulled himself up and frantically sprinted into the next room as he jumped down. They quickly dashed and gained a two room lead over him by the time he caught up with the elevator car, attempting to grab onto the ledge only for it to crumble due to the strength of his grip.

This sent Frank plummeting down after the car until he stuck his wrist blade into the wall, allowing him to slow down his descent, he pointed his arm cannon upwards and shot forth a blue grapple beam that latched onto it, allowing him to yank himself upwards and swing himself into the room that Samus and SVS had just vacated. He roared out with the fury of a thousand rabid lions as he swung his arms to bulldoze his way through the intervening walls between himself and his victim. The two teens quickly ran into a lift that carried them upwards and out of Frank's reach.

But the ever implacable super soldier fired out a grapple beam to grab the bottom of the lift, allowing him to follow close behind his prey who vacated the lift and ran into a higher room, at which point he stabbed his wrist blade into the wall facing him to root himself into place and yanked the lift out of place and obliterated it with a indigo sphere of energy, causing it to break apart into several molten pieces as a violet fireball blossomed out and shattered the disc shaped lift. At this point, Frank's coiled legs sprung and sent him into the door that his target just passed through.

The two had entered a floor just above Frank, so the power armour clad behemoth leapt up and smashed one of his fists through the ceiling and burst out of the floor, snapping at his target as he pulled his upper body to their level, frustrated that his prey had just gotten out of reach.

By the time Frank could pull himself out, they had gotten to another higher level, the Data storage level; but Frank simply smashed his right arm cannon through the ceiling, heralding the emergence of his left armblade and fist as he pulled himself out and once again began the pursuit of his teenaged quarry and his friend. But the Krikens soon noticed him and began to rain fire down upon him.

Imperialists and missiles began to impact frank, while emplacement guns also began to fire down upon him, causing him to reel to the right side as he was continously impacted by Kriken fire. The numerous bug men directed some fire at SVS and Samus, but it was light compared to the hellstorm they were unleashing upon Frank. But when his targets escaped into another room, only after scanning some important terminals to steal the Kriken data, Frank found the resolve to swing himself around to bring his arm cannon to bear, at which point he fired off his shotgun like cluster missile launcher.

The barrage of missiles obliterated the majority of the Krikens and created a gorey rain of alien blood, guts, and exoskeleton chips, allowing Frank the leeway he needed to pursue his target, smashing through a wall, seeing his prey take a hard right and moving into a hallway too small for him to follow them through.

He snarled in frustration as he fired off his cluster missiles to make enough room to pursue his prey, but by that time they were already in another room. He followed them through and found himself in an open air room and heard the whine of two loud engines from above that prompted him to look up. He realized that they had called their ships some time before to pick them up at a nearby open air area and looked on as the two vessels brought the fury of an air strike down upon him.

He was soon blanketed by ship grade weaponry, including particle beams, lasers, autocannons, and bombs. He shielded himself with his arms as fire blossomed all around him, knocking him to the ground as they quickly got into their ships as they swooped down to pick their masters up before zooming out of the atmosphere.

But eventually he clawed his way out of the rubble and roared in rage, determined to follow his prey. He activated his back mounted thrusters and flew to his own vessel some distance away, he would not let them escape.


	11. The not date

Meanwhile, in Space

Samuel and Samus' ships flew side by side, the two of them trying to normalize the frantic pace of their breathing. "Who...the...hell was that?" Samuel panted out into the video link he had with Samus. "I don't know Samuel, my scan visor came up with nothing..." She responded, shaking her head and slumping into her pilot's chair, letting out an exasperated exhalation.

"Wait...Samus...my scanners are detecting something big following us..." Samuel said as he looked at his radar screen, showing a large dot following his and Samus' vessel. He brought up the holographic link and turned around, seeing an projected image of a corvette sized vessel pursuing his and Samus' small craft.

"Oh god...it's him...split up, now!" Samus shouted as she closed to video link, but kept the audio communications up. The two ships then swung in opposite directions, redirecting their thrusters to initiate a high g turn. Due to space lacking friction, their turns were far sharper than they would be in an atmosphere, allowing them jerkier motion.

Samus ship rocketed upwards and fired off a quick volley of torpedoes while samuel's ship took a nose dive to avoid a flurry of violet astromag shots. He then actiavted microthrusters on the bottom and shut off his primary thrusters to send himself diving at the belly of the vessel; which he fired a barrage of missiles and energy lances into before changing his orientation once again and rocketing out.

Samuel's vessel then sent itself into a spinning barrage, firing forth a rotating barrage of energy bolts, plasma lances, and missiles into the corvette while Samus' flew over it's top and released magnetic bomblets that exploded against the corvette's shielding, firing forth flares to distract anti-small craft missiles before screaming leftwards to avoid the corvette's lance batteries.

Samuel's ship then fired forth a barrage of torpedoes that gutted the underbelly of Frank's ship's shielding before spinning down into a dive and coming around to fire some lances at the starboard side of Frank's vessel. Samus' ship rotated around and fired off electrolob orbs that temporarily disoriented the controls of Frank's vessel, rocketing past flak bursts.

"Samuel, activate the hyperdrive! Now!" She shouted through the commlink, giving the two young bounty hunters the signal to change their orientating and zoom off into hyperspace; vanishing and escaping Frank's sights while his ship's system rebooted from the circuit scrambling electric barrage.

Samuel breathed out a sigh of relief as his ship glided through the colorful currents of Hyperspace alongside Samus' ship. He sat back and decided to take a well-deserved nap, lying back in his chair which was adjusted to lie flat. When he awoke, his ship was just auto-docking into the hangar of the Alimbic mothership. His and Samus' ships landed next to one another in the cavernous hangar as they disgorged their passengers.

Samuel deactivated his armorsuit as he stepped out; a gesture that Samus soon followed him in doing, their power suits vanishing in a blue and yellow flash of light respectively. "How long has it been since you took me to your ship?" Samus asked as she looked around the ship, her golden pony tail swinging around as she turned her head. "Two months?" Samuel responded with a smile as he lead his friend into his adobe.

"Certainly hasn't felt that long." Samus responded a bit flatly, though she returned his smile. They were then greeted by the triangular crimson frame of the Trylux drone, whose tentacle like metal arms folded to it's stomach as it gave a slight bow. "Ah hello Master Sanders...and Miss Aran, lovely as usual I see." The Trylux drone said to greet Samuel and his companion in the politest tone he could manage.

Samus blushed ever so faintly at the drone's compliment. "So shall I have the others set up the tables for a date Samuel?" The Trylux drone offered with a twinge of playful sarcasm, causing Samuel to get a bit red in the face. "It's not a date..." Samuel protested, giving a slight moan of exasperation. "Right, then what else am I going to call a boy and a girl spending personal time with each other?" The Trylux Drone teased.

"We're just...hanging out...not that I wouldn't date Samus if she were open to the idea...but that's not what this is!" Samuel insisted before Samus stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Samuel...I know...No need to embarrass yourself." She said with a warm smile that caused Samuel to inhale deeply before releasing an exasperated sigh.

"You're right...so, how about we go and...get a bite to eat, I'll go and change into something I haven't sweated in so much." Samuel told Samus as he strut off to his room, deactivating his interface suit and putting on what he guessed would qualify as his Sunday best, a black shirt with a nice green jacket and some jeans...nothing overly fancy.

When he stepped out, he found Samus wearing a green jack with black leggins and suede boots, which made him feel a bit underdressed. "Well...You look impressive to say the least..." He complimented with a smile. "Oh stop it, you're making me blush." She responded playfully while the Trylux drone chuckled. "And you're sure that this is not a dinner date?" It teased, earning itself glares from the two of them.

The two sat themselves across from one another on a table and busied themselves with their dinner, though they were more interested in small talk. They traded stories of missions, engaged in teasing with one another, compared and contrasted experiences. "So, Samuel...I trust that you and your friend are well?" Uncle Stretch noted as he floated in, gliding serenely across the ground.

"Yeah, we're fine, aren't we Samus?" The boy responded, looking briefly at his mentor and guardian. "Yeah, yeah. We're doing pretty well." Samus agreed, nodding her head and smiling. "You are oddly polite for a citizen of the Galactic Federation..." Stretch snipped, which cause Samus to drop her utensils and fold her arms, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you, implying something?" She asked in a voice that had become much flatter all of a sudden. "Nothing, just noting that you are atypically affable for a member of a materialistic and imperialist culture." Stretch answered, his digitized voice remaining flat, already Samuel could sense an argument brewing...this was why he was much fonder of visiting Samus than the other way around, Stretch...had problems with the federation...Samuel felt that he was perhaps, being angry for him...

"Oh, I think you had better take that back...you're a crass old man in the guise of an hypersapient." Samus shot back, causing the Trylux drone to come in. "Now, now...let's not say anything that we will regret." The ever affable machine interjected. "Yeah, let's all...just back off now..." Samuel agreed but Stretch would have none of it.

"Stay out of this Neophyte! I will deal with you later, you are the one who brings this one credit harlot into the ship! Get her out now!" He shouted furiously, his facade of even temperedness melting away to show his true anger that roared forth like an inferno. "Samuel, let's go somewhere else before I choke on the smug in the air." Samus snarled back.

"Stop! Stop arguing! Can't we please just calm down?" Samuel pleaded, he was always afraid of having to make a choice between Samus and Stretch. "Yes, please listen to master Sanders...we need to all just calm down and handle this rationally." The Trylux drone agreed. Samus pushed her empty plate away and stomped out of the room, causing Samuel to walk in after her.

"Samus...what's wrong?" He asks as she leans against the wall. "It's...it's Stretch...He's definitely no Old bird...Samuel...you're a great friend, maybe even more than just a friend but...he's just an asshole...look, I think he's using you to fight his battles." She let out with a sigh. "Hey, Samus...we'll always be friends, remember the day I met you? How we found out that we had so much in common...That first kiss we shared? Yes it was awkward...and yes it was an on the fly ploy I came up with as a ploy to distract you...but...we became friends after that, maybe more that just friends...Look Samus...I know Stretch can be pretty rude...but it's something you'll have to adjust to...and also...there's something I'd like to ask you...could...could we be more than just friends? You and I..." He asked softly, causing Samus to blush a bit.

"Samuel...I'd love to...You and I both know that we...feel that way with each other...but with our line of work...I don't think a normal...boyfriend-girlfriend relationship can work out...for one thing, our typical clients are political enemies...and your guardian would probably have an aneurysm if we stepped up our relationship..." She told him as gently as she could, causing Samuel's expression to change to one of disappointment.

"I see...We can still be friends right?" He asked, trying to get some good news out of the mess. "Sure." Samus responded, showing her thin lipped grin. "Alright then, now can I have kiss?" He inquired with a grin on his face. "Hmm...fine." She said, smiling as they pressed their mouths into one another, spending a minute in lip lock before breaking off. This made Samuel feel a lot better about confronting Uncle Stretch.

He stepped back into the room with Uncle Stretch and took in a deep breath as he prepared to face his caretaker. "Alright...Uncle Stretch...I know you don't like Samus...but I also know that you ultimately want what's best for me...can't you at least, learn to accept my friend for who she is and see beyond her political alignments?" He asked of his Alimbic caretaker. "...Neophyte...Samuel...I mean...I have raised you as my own so that you may take revenge upon those who have wronged you...but Samus, she seems to temper your anger at those who should be your foes. But maybe, I'm just being an lonely old man, filled with regret who can't accept that the cosmos has left him behind." Stretch responded, his head dipped down in regret.

"Uncle, I..." Samuel started before he was silenced by a raise of Stretch's hand. "No...no Samuel, you need to be happy as well." Stretch told him with a defeated and sad sigh. Samuel, obviously, started to feel like crap...He didn't really reach any sort of lasting agreement with either...which made him wonder if making a compromise was really the right thing to do...He started to think about what would have happened if he made one choice over the other.

If he made the choice to go with Uncle Stretch, he'd probably be lonelier, but he'd be in a far better position to avenge his planet's demise, and he had to admit, that desire still burned deep within. If he had went with Samus, he'd probably be a lot happier, with a lovely girlfriend and some friends who weren't wires and circuits...but at the same time he'd probably never be able to put his ghosts to rest...

He needed a moment to think things out.


	12. Zero Mission

Once again Samuel woke up, rubbing his eyes as he stood up. He had grown into a strapping young man, just a few inches shy of six and a half feet. Still, he hadn't the slightest bit of facial hair, which somewhat disappointed him. By now his friend Samus had developed into a formidable Bounty Hunter, and though their choice of clients typically clashed, they so far managed to avoid meeting each other on the field of battle. Which he decided was for the best. However, he was seeing her less and less, their increasingly busy careers and the fact that they would nominally be enemies by political alignment made arranging meetings quite difficult.

His relationship with Uncle Stretch was no less strained. The Old Alimbic never truly seemed to recover emotionally from that argument two years ago...his facade of a calm and tempered wise man was cracking at the seams, showing a sad old man, one of the last of his kind. Indeed, Uncle Stretch seemed to actively avoid Samuel, always apologizing each time he met him and gliding off to sulk...It made Samuel feel terrible.

He went to the mess hall, actively avoiding the table at which the argument occurred due to the bad memories it evoked and was greeted by the familiar triangular hovering form of the Trylux Drone, who was also seeing the now almost grown Samuel less and less as he was nearly finished with his education. "Ah, hello Master Sanders...It's good to see you...especially since the mood in this adobe has always been so dour since that argument..." The Trylux drone started, but Samuel could tell that even it's typically affable tone of voice was cracking with a dull crushing sense of depression.

"I know Trylux...do you think I made the right choice?" Samuel asked, burying his face in the palms of his hands before pulling his head upwards. "Samuel...you did what you thought would be best...it's not your fault that the result would be such a poor one...But now with adulthood approaching, I do not think that you will be able to maintain your compromise forever...I fear that you will need to make a choice one way or another...I just hope that it's the right one." The drone responded, offering it's best advice.

"That's...encouraging." Samuel responded, trying to lighten the mood with some sarcasm. His attempt didn't exactly work though...He didn't really feel any better. He decided to speak to Samus, bringing up a holographic image of his friend, who smiled upon seeing him. "Hello Samuel. Nice to see a familiar face. So, what did you need me for?" She asked, tilting her head to one side. "Well...I just wanted to talk, the mood at home hasn't improved in the slightest since that argument two years ago." He responded, briefly glancing away and sighing discontently.

"Two years is an awfully long time to still be upset about something Samuel. But of course, Stretch is thousands of years old, I'm pretty sure he views thing in the very long term." She answered, folding her arms below her bosom, Samuel had to admit that his initial prediction was correct, she did turn out to be quite the head turner, now at the age of seventeen. "True..." Samuel breathed out, though his mood was starting to lighten.

"Right, now I'm about to embark on a mission that I think will really make a name for myself. I'm going to clear the space pirates from Zebes..." She informed her friend, a grin forming on her complexion. "Zebes! That sounds extremely dangerous...are you going to bring in all the upgrades you've acquired?" Samuel asked, his expression turning to one of shock and curiosity. "No, if you remember, upgrades can be destroyed or lost through damage. And many of them are priceless artifacts, so I can't risk losing them. I'll be bringing only the bare minimum...Zebes was a major Chozo colony so there ought to be a lot of upgrades for me to pick up along the way. Come on Samuel...you don't bring in everything you acquire to every mission for the same reason. You should know this." She answered, making Samuel feel like an idiot for forgetting this.

"Oh...oh wow, I feel stupid. Sorry. Just...please come back in one piece." He asked, causing Samus to smile. "You don't need to worry about me, you know I can take care of myself." She laughed out in response. "Now wait a second, I'll check if there are any jobs for me to take..." Samuel said as he took out a data pad, flipping through a huge amount of job listings. He saw many personal requests for him to take, as over the years he had acquired a reputation as an excellent bounty hunter and had become one of the rising stars in the business. But he saw the mention of one name that caught his attention...Frank.

The hardening of his expression immediately tipped off Samus to the fact that something was amiss, and her holographic image leaned in. "What is it?" She asked, her soft voice with that distinctive slight Irish accent hardening, "You remember Frank?" Samuel asked, turning to face Samus; their blue eyes locking with each other. "How could I forget that tin plated muscle bound freak?" Samus answered, straightening herself. "Well, apparently this potential client has spotted him on a neutral planet...and he wants me to take him down." He answered, slightly frowning at the end of his sentence.

"Are you sure? Last time we met him we barely got away with our lives" She inquired, worry etching itself onto her complexion. "I'm sure...at the very least, he was the one who killed my mother, and I'm sure he murdered my father too. If I can get the drop on him, and bring all the firepower I've acquired over the years, I think I'll have a shot. Maybe he can even lead me to the rotten heart of the Federation..." He answered, looking her straight in the eyes. Samus let loose a sigh and returned Samuel's unflinching gaze. "Well, at least do me the favor of not getting yourself killed." She said, letting her arms drop to her sides.

"Now what was that you said to me? 'You know I can take care of myself'? I think it applies here too." Samuel chuckled back, causing Samus to giggle in response. "Right, see you soon then. Tell me how your hunt goes." Samus responded, beaming at her friend. "I will, and make sure to do the same for me." He asked to the nodding of Samus as her holographic image disappeared, leaving her to embark on her mission.

He then stood up out of his seat and looked at the Trylux Drone "Make sure to have the place ready for when I get back. I have a feeling that it will call for a celebration." He asked of the tutor drone who answered with a simple "Yes Master Sanders, I'll make sure to have your quarters readied. I'm sure that Stretch will be proud of you...but I will echo the concerns of Miss Aran. Do come back alive." He asked of his long time pupil. "I will, after all, wasn't I trained to be the best?" He responded with a question of his own as he headed off to the hangar, boarding his ship and taking off; leaving the Mothership's artificial gravity well before zipping off into hyperspace


	13. Frankenstein's Revenge

His ship slipped out of hyperspace and descended into the planet's gravity well, gliding through the atmosphere before landing at the site where his source said that Frank had been spotted. He disembarked from the top of his needle like ship and surveyed the area, checking all of his weaponry before heading out. He took a moment to breathe in and out...this was definitely not going to be an easy mission. The last time he encountered Frank he nearly had a heart attack from the PTSD attack. But he had to be strong this time, he had to for the sake of his world's memory. He walked out, surveying the area, but he was tipped off to Frank's presence by a vehicle being sent flying as if something had thrown it. He turned to the source of the flaming projectile and saw Frank who immediately turned to face him. ""Funny that I should meet you here so quickly...but of course I got close enough for my scanners to familiarize themselves with your ship's signature." The behemoth snarled through his teeth.

Samuel had his ship take off as he prepared to deal with his nemesis.. He checked his inventory...he had the Varia suit, seven energy tanks, a hundred fifty missiles, twenty super missiles, the grapple lasso, the grapple swing, the grapple voltage, the speed booster, the high jump boots, the power beam, the charge beam, the ice beam, the wave beam, the thermal visor, space jump boots, the legendary Chozo screw attack, four hundred UA units, the battle hammer, the imperialist, the judicator, and the magmaul. He immediately fired off a charged shot, stacked with the power beam, ice beam, and wave beam at Frank, causing him to recoil backwards from the impact. "Nice...now let me show you what my gun can do." Frank snarled as he pointed his AstroMag cannon at Samuel and fired, sending an indigo orb hurtling towards Samuel which exploded into a blossoming fireball and sent Samuel flying head over heels and smashed into a wall.

Samuel hit the ground and groaned as he got back up, a dull ache filling his body. "Oh god that hurt..." He muttered as he got back up and scanned his target. "Scan complete: Subject Frank; Though the database's concerning Frank's creation are protected by quantum-entanglement encryption devices, enough has been gathered from onsite scanning to discern his Strong points. Frank is well armed, with the right arm mounted AstroMag cannon being his primary kill vehicle. The AstroMag cannon is capable of firing beams, pulses, orbs, bolts, and missiles in abundance. He also possesses a left hand mounted lightning emitter, a left sidearm blade, a right cannon-bayonet, no less than four shoulder cannons that can fire either missiles or plasma artillery blasts. He also possesses a chest-mounted uni-beam cannon, rounding out his arsenal. To give him aerial mobility, he has repulsor lifts and rockets on both his back and feet in addition to his chest. For best results, fire at these devices as they are the least well armoured parts of his suit." His scan visor informed him.

"Oh hell, he's armed to the teeth..." Samuel muttered as he staggered to his feet, only for another charging swing from Frank to send him flying through the building he had hit not seconds ago. His sailing form smashed through at least a dozen walls, causing them to splinter into duracrete shards and leaving some workers very confused as he smashed out of the last wall and hit the ground and rolling into a spin. He shuddered as he got up onto his hands as Frank began to blast his way through the building, not really caring about collateral damage...Samuel heard anguished screams and a blood curdling roar issue forth from the building until the metal plated titan emerged from the ruins of the structure that collapsed behind him, surely sending thousands to their death.

Samuel breathlessly muttered a "No" as he watched the building, presumably full of people collapse and kill everyone who was in it before. He quickly got back up onto his feet and let off three super missiles from his modular assault rifle aimed at the glowing circle in the centre of Frank's chest, causing him to recoil backwards as the massively powerful explosives detonated on his chest. Samuel checked and grimaced when he saw that Frank's attack brought down three energy tanks...he needed energy pick ups and he needed them fast. He then immediately let loose with his battle hammer, letting loose a stream of rapid fired green explosives that exploded as they sang through the air and impacted his front and detonated in green fireballs.

This forced frank back once more, and Samuel then released a stream of no less than twenty missile shots that further forced him back before finishing the deal with two charged shots. This caused frank to stagger backwards and fall to his knee, but he then aimed his arm cannon at Samuel and fired off a cluster missile scatter blast that sent Samuel Sailing through the air and smashing into the road, his body skidding across the ground as his titanic foe approached. In a hurry, Samuel called forth his ship to make an attack run, and the needle like vessel soon appeared; firing off pulse blasts and missiles that knocked Frank to the ground before it carpeted him with a flurry of bombs.

But once again Frank rose to his feet, and he fired off a hail of missiles from his shoulders, forcing the vessel to pull a hard right turn to avoid being hit as it fired off flares and chaff in a mad attempt to avoid damage. But it gave Samuel the time he needed to fire off the remainder of his super missiles, which impacted Frank all across his chest and forced him onto his Back. However, Frank was able to get to his feet and fire off a lance of purple energy, prompting Samuel to leap up and above the attack and fire off a flurry of about five missiles that hit Frank in the face, stunning him slightly.

Frank let off a groggily cluster missile scatter blast that screamed out of his arm cannon and smashed into a set of buildings, ripping apart their fronts and tearing at their vital supports. Hundreds of people died instantly from the explosions, heat, and fragmentary burst of the missiles, but thousands more died as the buildings collapsed upon them, entombing them in Rubble. This enraged Samuel and prompted him to unload dozens of missiles into Frank, hitting him with no less than forty three missiles that caused the juggernaut to stagger backwards, only for his Uni-beam to hit Samuel and knock him a good three hundred meters before he hit the ground with only one energy tank left.

Samuel then immediately called his ship which had by now shaken off the missiles that were locked onto it, he leaped into it and resupplying as quickly as possible, but he was forced to leap out as Frank approached, sending his ship out of the way as he shot off a fully charged blast into Frank's face, only for the behemoth to fire off a Lance of purple energy that blasted him into the ground. But the next time he fired at Samuel, the canny teenaged bounty hunter activated his screw attack, providing him protection against the impact, and he used his second Jump to smash into Frank's shielding, the whirling buzzsaw of energy tearing at his shielding and forcing him back.

Realizing that he was in danger, Frank grabbed Samuel as he broke out of his screw attack and flung him into some buildings at the right, firing off a barrage of AstroMag spheres that utterly demolished the city block Samuel was in, burying him in rubble and killing everyone in the area save for him, who had been teleported back to his ship as the emergency systems in his suit detected that his shielding had been depleted. Samuel then drifted into unconsciousness, falling asleep in his pilot's chair that had been laid flat for him to rest on.


	14. Fallout

By the time he had woken, his ship was in hyperspace; having decided to trail behind Frank's ship. It had been pursuing him for a good three hours, but the trail was growing cold, and the darkspire soon dropped out of hyperspace as it lost all trace's of Frank's corvette. His vessel then made the long trip back to the mothership, slipping into hyperspace and gliding through the currents of that multi-coloured parallel dimension. When his vessel dropped out of hyperspace, it docked back into the hangar of his mothership and landed...technically speaking, he was going on the word of a contact rather than taking a bounty or contract, there was no mission to fail. And yet...Samuel felt defeated inside, he had allowed his nemesis to slip away into the void of space.

He deactivated his suit and sulked out of his vessel, entering his chamber and deactivating his interface suit to put on some more regular clothing before walking to the dining chamber of the vessel. But when he got there, he saw Samus, wearing a rather stunning white moon dress with white stilettos...by now she had completed her six hour long zero mission and decided to visit her friend to celebrate the occasion. Seeing her in such a fancy dress certainly made Samuel feel underdressed. "Oh...um...wow..." Was all Samuel could sputter out. "Yes, I thought I'd go and make a surprise visit after finishing up on Zebes...man have I got a story to tell you." She informed Samuel before noting that he had a remarkably dour expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" She asked, tilting her head. "Frank got away...And a lot of people died in my half assed attempt at catching him..." Samuel breathed out, his confidence, typically rather high to the point of arrogance, had now dipped to an all time low, and it showed. "Come, sit down with me, we'll discuss it." She told him, putting a slender hand on his shoulder and guiding him down to a chair opposite across a table from herself. "Now tell me, what exactly happened?" She asked, leaning in slightly as she moved her hand back down to her sides. "Well, I went in way over my head and tried to charge in all gung ho without a plan. We traded quite a few blows but Frank must have slaughtered thousands in trying to get me...watching people who have nothing to do with the conflict at hand get massacred...it just makes my blood boil! I felt so helpless! Watching the Federation's pet attack dog killing people, listening to their screams..." He responded, his anger rising before giving way to an overwhelming sadness.

"I can understand why you would feel bad about that...but we've talked about this before. Frank represents a bad side of the federation that I oppose as much as you do. One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch." She said, trying to assuage him and temper his emotions. "How would we know that this bad side doesn't run the whole freaking show!" Samuel shot back, losing his temper rapidly, raising one of his hands before Samus grabbed it with one of her own and gently set it down. "Samuel...Calm down...just take a deep breath and count to ten." She asked of him, keeping her voice as gentle as possible. Samuel heeded her advice and inhaled deeply, his chest rising as he closed his eyes before exhaling out from his mouth and opening his eyes again, mentally counting down.

"Sorry...let's change the subject...please..." He asked, his anger swiftly being replaced by an overwhelming depression. "Alright, even if I don't think this is the best course of action...I suppose you would like to hear of my Zebes mission?" She answered, deciding that this would be the best thing to change the subject too. Samuel only answered with a nod, briefly taking the time to straighten his jacket before focusing his attention back on Samus. "Right, so it started out fairly normally, blasting through the local fauna that had been mind controlled by Mother Brain." She started, now grabbing Samuel's attention.

"After some distance, I was attacked by the huge worm that blocked off all exit paths with it's body. So I had to fight my way out. Luckily it's one huge eye was vulnerable to my missiles, so I blew it's brains out and got the charge beam for my troubles. After that I trekked into Kraid's layer and fought another giant worm that dwelled in the acid that had it's eyes on the side...I pumped those eyes full of charged shots and missiles before moving on to take on Kraid himself." She started as she recounted the tale of her Zero Mission which was quickly becoming the stuff of legend and propelled her to dizzying heights in her career. Samuel had to admit he was feeling more than a bit jealous...a combination of envy and doubt as to whether she would really side with him over the federation if the chips were down began to sow the seeds of mistrust in the seventeen year old's mind.

Samuel did his best to contain these emotions, though there were some very subtle cues that he couldn't avoid manifesting, but they were small enough to escape Samus' attentions. As a few hours passed, Samus finished her story, often repeating certain events and going back to cover more minor encounters. Samuel became determined to have a zero mission of his own...a mission that would allow him to really leave his mark on the cosmic scene. He briefly clenched his right hand into a fist, accidentally crushing the glass he was holding. "Umm...Sam..." Samus interjected, forcefully dragging him out of his thoughts, his hand immediately recoiled; though he avoided anything more serious than a few small scrapes and cuts.

That wasn't to say that it didn't hurt though, but the nanobots within his bloodstream immediately worked to seal the injuries he had sustained, knitting them up with breath-taking speed and removing any microshards that had gotten lodged in his skin. Within the process of a minute, his hand was now completely fine. "Ah, that smarts..." He muttered as the pain subsided. "Right, you were kind of zoning off there...Is something wrong?" She asked, tilting her head and looking into his eyes. "No...no...everything's fine..." He lied, though he had more than enough practice to hide this fact. "Right...Shall we have dinner then?" She asked, though this did little to lighten Samuel's mood. "Alright." Samuel answered half-heartedly.

The two who usually were very talkative with one another while sharing a meal, were remarkably quiet, discussing very little. Samuel showed little interest in either her or his meal and by the time it was done Samus was dead certain that something was amiss. "Samuel...talk to me...you're being awfully quiet and withdrawn. What's wrong?" She asked, placing her right hand on his jacketed shoulder, getting a very minimalistic response from him. "I'm fine...I just...need some time alone to think." He answered, turning away and getting ready to get out of his seat. "No, you're not, and no you don't. Sam, the last thing in the world you need is to be left alone." She informed him, now starting to get seriously worried.

"I said that I was fine! And don't call me Sam!" he shot back, almost swinging around to hit her before stopping himself. "Samuel, you need psychological help...you need to get out of this ship...you staying in this ship with minimal human contact is not healthy and I'm afraid that you're turning into something ugly inside..." She said, not even flinching, though she was inwardly shaken, somewhat afraid of the direction he was taking. "I don't need help, just leave me alone!" He snarled back at her, causing her to recoil back to her seat. "I see...I'll be going now...you can call me back when you're done throwing a temper tantrum like a spoiled toddler." She informed him bluntly, standing up and strutting back to the hangar. Samuel then stormed off to his quarters, crossing paths with the Trylux drone, who had overheard the whole conversation. The Trylux drone tried to speak, but Samuel shut him out, leaving the drone to mire itself in worry as Samuel shut himself in his room.


	15. At the price of oblivion

Three months later

By now Samuel had gained a significantly greater reputation for himself as a bounty hunter, but he still couldn't manage to worm his way out from beneath Samus' shadow. This was one of many factors that was beginning to send him into a long, painful slide towards sociopathy. Other factors included his upbringing, Stretch was a great instructor in the ways of the warrior, and Trylux was an excellent tutor in more academic matters, but they were certainly not replacements for human parents, his social isolation, as he never got a chance to grow amongst his own kind, and perhaps a seed of madness that had been with him since birth. He hadn't spoken to Samus since their last debacle, and he had indeed hardly spoken to any of his companions in quite some time.

He had just finished a mission where he infiltrated and destroyed the Federation Battlecruiser G.F.S Michael, but still, it couldn't compare to Samus' feat of destroying the incredibly well fortified complex at Zebes. But as he slipped into Hyperspace, his sensors failed to pick up a cloaked vessel the size of a corvette that tracked his hyperjump and slipped into hyperspace after him. The vessel's faster hyperdrives allowed it to beat him to Samuel's adobe by a good hour...and when Samuel arrived, he found that the mothership was in a truly sorry state. Ruptures in it's hull, shields disabled, multiple systems failed or failing...

This immediately drew him out of a three month long dour mood set and ignited the spark of extreme worry in him. He looked over his options and decided to call forth his friend...Samus Aran. He brought up the communication lines and immediately established contact with her. "Well...look who decided to call after all...what is it?" Samus said sternly, still remembering the bad note that their previous meeting ended on. "Samus...I think something terrible has happened at the mothership...and I think I know who's responsible..." He told her, and her expression immediately hardened. "You don't mean...Frank, do you?" She said, the air in the two vessels they were piloting deadening immediately.

"Yes...I see his corvette docked with the mothership...it's him alright..." Samuel responded, causing Samus to respond by activating her suit which appeared over her in a flash of yellow light. "I'm on my way, hold tight and for sanity's sake don't do anything stupid!" She told him as her ship jumped off into hyperspace. After thirty agonizing minutes, her new hunter gunship arrived, her arriving so quickly due to her only being thirty thousand parsecs away. "Alright I'm here...let's head in..." She told Samuel who nodded over the commlink as the two vessels entered the hangar of the ruined mothership.

They were met with the sight of a massacre, with the clear signs of Frank's weaponry having torn it's way through the mechanical guards of the ship. Psychobit, Guardian, Turret, and other Alimbic mechanoid parts were lying in pieces all over the place. Then they came across the corpses of Alimbics and non combat drones. Samuel was trying hard to not choke up beneath his suit, virtually every corpse was that of a friend he had held for fourteen years. He followed a massive entry hole that could only have been the work of Frank, leading Samus through the corridors of the ship, entering a hallway leading to the main meeting hall.

He passed through and saw the Trylux Drone, lying in a corner of the room, sparking from rents in it's left abdomen and right shoulder, slumped to the ground in a pitiful heap. "Ma-Khkkkh-ster San...Sand-Khkkh-ers? Isis Is...th-that Khkkkh you?" The drone said as Samuel rushed up to it, putting a hand on the left side of it's crumpled head. "Yes...yes it is old friend..." He said as he deactivated his helmet to look into the visor like optic of the crimson drone. "I Khkkh tr...Tried to st-Khkkh-op himhim..Mas...ster Sand-Khkkh-ers..." Trylux told him, looking into Samuel's blue eyes as his power core failed. "Don't go...please...don't go..." Samuel whimpered, tears streaming down his eyes.

"I'm...s-sorry...I've...I've Khkkh...failllleeedddd" Trylux managed before shutting down completely, dying in Samuel's arms, and leaving his former pupil to wallow in despair. Samus put a hand on one of his spiked pauldrons, trying to assuage her friend. "There's nothing you can do for him now...but you can avenge him." She informed him, her gravity suit clad form kneeling down to face Samuel as he reactivated his helmet and steeled himself for whatever may lay on the other side.

His preparation however, was by no means enough. He went through the last blast door and saw a meeting room in ruins, fire everywhere, furniture upturned, appliances wrecked. But he then saw Uncle Stretch and Frank fighting one another. Stretch was clad in full Alimbic battle armor and was dealing with the psychopathic behemoth with every trick he had in the book. But the arrival of the two teenagers proved to be a fatal distraction. "Samuel! Get out of here now!" Stretch shouted at him, turning to face the two before Frank's left sidearm blade rammed itself through stretch's back and out through his chest, an electrical blast shooting into his impaled back before Frank withdrew his blade and made good on his withdrawal to his ship; blasting a hole through the wall with his cluster missile launcher.

Samuel was in a word, suffering from the human equivalent to a blue screen of death...his entire world had been taken and shattered like a priceless vase being hit by a gorilla with a warhammer. Samus fired off some shots from her arm cannon, but Frank was able to withdraw, firing only a few AstroMag shots in return before drawing out of range. Samuel stumbled towards Stretch and sank to his knees, looking down at his guardian as alien ichor oozed out of his wound. "Sa-samuel..." Stretch called out weakly. "You m-must...av-avenge us...there...there is no-nothing you can do to save me...b-but you can...put y-your ghosts at re-rest...ma-make th-them pay..." Stretch informed him as the light faded from his eye and the life passed from his body.

Samuel quickly became a sobbing wreck...everything had been taken from him...everything save for his friend. "Samuel...Samuel..." Samus called out, kneeling down across from him. She was shaken and in tears as well...Her best friend's life had been completely shattered...and she was afraid of where it would lead. "Why didn't you save them?" Samuel asked between sobs. "Samuel there was nothing I could do." She responded in as gentle a voice as she could manage. "Why...why did they have to die?" He sobbed out, feeling as helpless as he did when he watch Frank massacre his mother fourteen years ago. "It's not fair..." He breathed out, barely noticing when Samus put a hand on his shoulder. "Samuel...remember what Stretch told you...make Frank pay..." She informed him, but this was perhaps the wrong choice of words.

"What do you know! You never liked Stretch!" He snapped back. "Maybe that's true, but I know how much he meant to you..." She responded, trying to remain level headed. "Two years ago you wanted me to run off with you!" He snarled back at her. "No, I said that the only way a romantic relationship could exist between the two of us is if he wasn't there to belittle me!" She shouted back. "Well, now he's out of the way! I hope you're freaking happy!" He roared back, fury rising within him. A realization then sparked in Samus...he was too consumed with grief to be reasoned with any more...so she stood up. "Well then Samuel, you can stew in your assumptions...you can call me when you're done acting like a little baby!" She snapped back at him, pointing an accusing finger at him before standing up and walking away from him.

"Well you can forget it!" Samuel shouted, rage overcoming him. Samus admittedly, felt hurt inside...but she walked away...she hoped that it was merely a heat of the moment thing, but part of her felt that she had lost a friend to the fires of anger. Samuel on the other hand, had just suffered from the straw that broke the metaphorical camel's back. He swore that the whole federation would pay for everything. All the anger that he had held back was rushing forward. An all-consuming hate for the world was overcoming him, he would now lash out at the universe that had tormented him for seventeen years. And he would start...with Frank...


	16. Discovery

He gathered every item he could find in the ship that was compatible with his suit, even reducing himself to looting off from Uncle Stretch, gaining all the upgrades he could, including seven more energy tanks, ten more super missiles, and enough missiles to bring his count up to two hundred and fifty five. He brought out the affinity weapon versions of the Imperialist, Battle hammer, and Judicator, and Magmaul, with nonaffinity versions of the Shock Coil and Volt driver, additionally; he claimed the rather obscure electrolobber weapon. His armoursuit was upgraded by the Gravity Suit that Uncle Stretch had gained from the Chozo, his jump systems soon found the space jump amongst their number, and he soon welcomed the enormously lethal plasma beam and Luminoth made seeker missile into his arsenal.

With his collection of upgrades, he loaded up the energy grenade generator, capable of generating energy charges about five times as potent as a morph ball bomb's, fifteen power grenade tanks, sidearm, and just about any weapon he could before heading to his ship. He punched in some commands to his ship to follow the last residual hyperspace jump's tracings to it's source. His ship then stretched off into infinity and slipped into the multi-coloured maelstrom of hyperspace.

His ship brought up what data it could on what it calculated the corvette's destination as being. According to the Vnet database, the coordinates lead to a system named Klieser with a red giant star in the final hundred million year stretch of its life with three partners, a blue hyper giant, a neutron star and a white dwarf. The white dwarf originated from the star Klieser A, the larger, hotter burning member at about three times the mass of the sun of what was once a binary system, though the second star, Klieser-B which was originally a mere 0.8 times the mass of the sun, immigrated into the system about a billion years ago. When Klieser-A shedded it's outer layers with its dying breath to form a planetary nebula, Klieser-B grew fat and bloated off of now free material.

About a light year away, a Red Supergiant from the Grulx system exploded into a supernova, spreading it's outer material in all directions as violently as possible and left its core as a much smaller Neutron star that drifted into the Klieser system. This process happened relatively recently, as was evidenced by the fact that the stellar corpse remained in magnetar stage, though the fact that it was in magnetar stage in the first place indicated that the star shedded some mass before going supernova. The blue hypergiant, dubbed Malarg was flung into this system by an intermediate mass black hole and had only arrived into this orbit about three thousand years ago, a fraction of Humanity's hundred and twenty thousand year long history as a star faring race.

The system had a hodgepodge of four or five different planetary systems, the number varying depending on just what constitutes as a different system, with the recent eras bringing quite a lot of chaos. First there was Klieser-A's original system of planets, three gas giants, five ice giants, and eight rocky planets with over fifty dwarf planets, over two hundred moons with at least thirty five of them being large enough to be round, and far, far too many asteroids and comets to count. Then came Klieser-B about a billion years ago with its system of two gas giants, an ice giant, five rocky planets, a dozen dwarf planets, and a swarm of minor celestial bodies.

Somehow, there were no collisions or destabilization of orbits for the planets and dwarf planets during the merging of the systems and them all entered nice, safe orbits. Though this could not be said for the asteroids and comets that went and played a game of cosmic bumper cars with each other. The magnetar had only two ice giants, ten dwarf planets, a bunch of comets, less than a thousand asteroids, and a trio of rocky planets that survived it's supernova, but post-stellar death accretion formed a dozen rocky planets, seventy dwarf planets, a dazzling array of comets and asteroids, and a gas giant...stellar zombies of sorts. In a manner that defied all expectation of the astronomic community five thousand years ago, not a single collision or destabilization of orbit for/between any of the planets or stars occurred even though all expectations were certain of this eventuality.

As the merging of stellar systems was a rare occurrence, the Federation had an army of scanners and sensors watching the whole event on a very long time scale. Specialized sensors tuned to detect disturbances in the fundamental forces and spacetime found that one rocky planet was emitting immensely powerful "tractor beams" of gravity that sorted all the incoming bodies into stable orbits. As it was indeed impossible for a planet about the size of the Earth, which was only really notable for having conditions remarkably similar to the Earth during the Cretaceous save for having much more atmospheric oxygen rather than much less that once named Klieser-VI and then renamed Sentinel Prime to do this on its own the Federation plopped a research station onto the world and found a huge, wrecked Chozo star dreadnought, dated to being roughly three million years old that contained technology of staggering complexity even by the standards of their people, technology of such power that it would make many deities of myth look feeble in comparison.

This information was classified and hidden from the Federation's Chozo allies. When Malgar with it's buzzing swarm of over a hundred planets, ten thousand dwarves, more asteroids than there were stars in a small galaxy, and a comet count that went into the tens of quadrillions, the automated systems of the wrecked Chozo vessel came to life and brought all the new comers into safe orbits around a quadruple system and shoved the habitable planets into orbits in the new goldilocks' zone, choosing areas that would allow their ecosystems to continue on as if nothing changed.

This amazed the federation, who expanded their base even further and turned the Klieser system and especially the planet Sentinel Prime into one of the largest research facilities in the entire known universe. It wouldn't have surprised Samuel at all if the world also contained the labs that gave rise to Frank. He found himself wondering as to just what other foul experiments that he would find waiting in the labs of Sentinel Prime. He imagined all sorts of horrid abominations, mighty war machines, and cunning supersoldiers calling the lab home.

But no more, he would destroy the lab, and Frank...and once his ship dropped out of hyperspace, he began to plot how he would do this. He had his ship modify his scanners to be able to read Frank's identifier that allowed the behemoth's superiors keep track of him after that confrontation with him roughly at the same time as Samus' Zero mission using the scan data that he had acquired in that battle. He was able to find where on Sentinel Prime Frank was located, finding that he was currently in a rather deep portion of what his ship's orbital scans confirmed as the lab built around the crashed Chozo Dreadnought.

He formulated a plan...first he would get map station data, then he would find a suitable room to draw Frank into to force him to fight on his terms and gain some sort of advantage over him. At this point, he would begin to really step up his assault and cause as much havoc as possible to draw Frank out, then he would lead him into his designated field of battle. Then he would take him down. Once Frank was down, he would cause as much damage as possible before breaking out. If he could destroy the base...all the better, if he could destroy the base without disturbing the Chozo vessel's wreckage and get out alive, that would probably be the best outcome possible. From his visits with Samus to Zebes, he had developed a great fondness for the Chozo and the other hypersapients, though allowing the vessel to once more rest in peace was by no means his primary objective, it was certainly considered.

Samuel took one last time to take a look at some images of him with his original family, including one that showed his Father holding his then three year old self atop his shoulders while held by the affectionate embrace of Eva Sanders with the Reich chancellery in the background and the luxurious green gardens of that palace between the building and the pic-cast recipients. Then he looked at another image, of him when he was fourteen...showing him with his right arm around Samus' neck in an awkwardly affectionate matter with friendly smiles on their faces while Uncle Stretch and the remaining Alimbics with the Sapient drones he had come to know standing to the right side behind the two with Old Bird and the Chozo of Zebes standing to the left, also behind the two of them.

These and other still cast memories reminded him of the highlights of his life, and he quickly had all the data stored on his ship's data banks copied and downloaded into his suit and underlying interface suit for the umpteenth time, being rightly paranoid regarding the possibility of this data being lost due to any reason. Releasing a single sigh and collecting his thoughts, he then reminded himself of what evil the Federation had wrought, he reminded himself of what needed to be done. He had his path chosen for him by circumstance...he would put his ghosts to rest, and he would sever the last thread he had to his old life on Cylosis.


	17. Infiltration

Punching some commands into his ship's systems, the Darkspire slid into the gravity well of Sentinel Prime, activating it's advanced Alimbic designed cloaking technology to avoid detection as it sought out a suitable landing site, eventually discovering an landing field that it detected as having the least amount of traffic or security via an virtual army of scanners and sensor arrays that probed the base for signs of both organic and mechanical nature. The ship touched down and quickly allowed Samuel to depart before it silently slipped away to a more secure area on the earth like planet while the distant growl of reptilian predators sounded and some trees rustled, prompting some rather large chrome quadruple barrel automated turrets normally meant for anti-air/smallcraft usage that were retrofitted to be able to deal with ground threats to turn their attention to the source of the noise.

Samuel caught a brief glimpse of the source of the noise, a huge beast that looked like what one would get if they crossed the best (or worst depending on one's point of view) features of the Dinosaur superorder. A huge, powerful head like a Tyrannosaurus with jaws that could crush tank armour or shielding and especially elongated canines more like a Smilodon or Gorgonopsid than any dinosaur; long, muscular arms that contained raw power like a Deinocheirus, with viciously sharp and sturdy claws like a Spinosaurus, even including an massive thumb claw like Baryonyx's. From its brow sprouted mighty horns of an impossibly sharp and hard Keratin analogue, and it's nose also possessed a similarly regal instrument while the back of its head possessed a magnificent and nigh impenetrable bony frill that ended in yet more spikes while four spikes flared from its cheeks.

Bony osteoderms, and spikes sprouted from all over its body, but especially on its upper back, possessing added layers of Keratin, cartilage, and other substances to form a kind of natural chobham armour that coated all of its other natural weaponry and armour. Its tail ended in a spiked club that possessed whip like manoeuvrability while its powerful legs suggested a great speed. Quills sprouted from its body to supplement its spikes, sometimes clustering together, other times being rather sparse apart, they even seemed to drip with a material that hissed and created steam when it hit the ground.

Its eyes had a predatory glint that betrayed a cruel intelligence, and it eyed the defences as if it were mentally probing for a weakness. Lightning crackled around this creature's many spikes, flowing in arcs, with small arcs occasionally lashing out at what were presumably unwelcome pests such as insectoids. Perhaps the only thing that really seemed out of place on what seemed to be an unmatched killer were what seemed to be vestigial bat-like wings that emerged from above its shoulders; apparently it shared a common ancestry with the dragon-like creatures that also called this planet home. Samuel immediately decided to scan the beast.

"Scan log complete: Carnotyrannosaurus Maximus Rex, more commonly referred to as Firetyrants by the federation personnel on Sentinel Prime. They are superbly adapted Apex Predators, though are oddly at the same time quite generalized, being able to consume plant matter and grind it against a second set of teeth and digest it with a special gullet and consume fish as well as land prey, and are indeed accomplished swimmers. Though they resemble the Dinosaurs of Earth's prehistory, they are not related at all, sharing only 1% of their genetic structure with even the most similar Terran life forms due to having evolved on another planet. Average size range of Adult C.M,Rex's is 20 to 30 meters with a mass of 30-90 tonnes, though as they grow throughout their lives, larger examples have been found. They possess a deadly variable temperature flame breath that can spew forth burning gas, liquid, or even plasma that can go from being only hot enough to slow cook it's meals or go to temperatures high enough to instantly change Carbon into a Quark-Gluon Plasma state. To supplement its ranged ability, it is capable of firing quills with enough force to impale a full sized steer and launch it a good twenty feet, then dig into duracrete, furthermore, they are typically coated in an acid that can melt through materials as tough as Denzium and also typically contain a brutal poison that can kill an blue whale in seconds. A network of biological electricity generators that use its spikes as tesla coils that will both fry incoming attackers and projectiles in a defensive manner and lash out at designated targets offensively is also detected, and scans of its vocal cords indicate that it is capable of roars powerful enough to literally shake apart tank grade armor. There is no point of its outer body that is vulnerable to small arms fire, even its eyelids can shrug off any known man portable weapon, even Chozo weaponry of the scale and power of the super missile, charged stacked beam, or power bomb cannot hurt it's armor plating in any way shape or form and can only cause irritation to its exposed skin. Heavy artillery is typically the required course of action when dealing with these creatures, which are cunning and intelligent to a great degree and hunt in large packs with intelligent tactics. Over the five thousand years of Federation presence on Sentinel Prime, a large portion of them have been domesticated, represented in the Familiaris subspecies. They are part of the same suborder to which the Dragons, Wyverns, Linnorms, and Sea Drakes amongst other omnivorous flame breathing predatory reptiloids belong."

His visor seemed to be positively gushing about these reptiloids. But perhaps he could make use of them later on...for now; they are kept at a distance, knowing full well that the automatic railguns of the anti-air turrets amongst other defences can deal even the likes of them a serious number. The apparent scout of the pack slinks away into the jungle, pushing trees aside as it lumbered back in. But by this time Samuel had snuck in, using the distraction of the security cameras to his advantage.

He looked around and saw that to his luck, the Federation was not guarding this area particularly well. Only a few lazy guards were present, and they were clearly far more interested in their cups of coffee and inane discussions than actually performing their duties. Indeed, neither their weapons nor their helmets were equipped, and Samuel managed to sneak into another room without being noticed by any of them. He quickly came into a square lobby like room that contained several doors. He decided to enter the nearest door and found an Emergency station that needlessly recharged his fully charged shields and set his emergency teleporter's destination to the station's location once he stepped on.

Better safe than sorry, Samuel reasoned as he went into another door and found an ammo refill station. Having no need of the station at the moment, Samuel decided to simply keep note of it and went to another door, finding the map station he needed. He immediately activated the map system and briefly wondered why in sanity's name that nobody in the history of forever ever seriously made an effort to make these difficult in any way for an half-way competent intruder to access and use. But he also decided that it was best not to look a gift horse in the mouth and simply went along with it before exiting and entering the door opposite.

Here he found some log computers and weapon storage crates. However, a defence drone hovered down, whirling on it's silent rotors while menacingly moving it's flattened diffusion beam cannon around. However, Samuel knew that their armour could be penetrated by the Wave Beam, which could pass through most any inorganic substance with no loss of energy. So he simply charged up one shot and sent an greenish-purple lance of energy that swung up and down in a rather haphazard pattern while energy crackled around it forming multi-coloured arcs of power before striking the drone and causing it to explode into a bloom of some fire, concussive waves, and shrapnel and drop it's contents.

Before he picked up the upgrade, Samuel took the time to shoot out anything that remotely looked like a Camera to ensure that his stealth would not be compromised. He then scanned the upgrade and found that it read "Diffusion beam." At which point he shrugged his shoulders and grabbed the potent upgrade which added yet another element to his combi-beam on top of the long, charge, ice, wave, and plasma beams. Now he had an even more potent weapon. He followed up by cracking open a crate his scanners indicated had a weapon, finding another upgrade that he discovered was known as the wide-beam that tripled his beams and thus gave his beam a tremendous increase in firepower, while making the individual shots stronger still. He cracked open two more weapon containing crates and acquired the thermo-missile, electro-missile, and diffusion missile, which gave his missiles increased firepower and the ability to burn and stun his targets with electricity and could be charged to have a massive area of effect that would stack with the typical missile charger. He scanned through one of the terminals and found a log that looked important.

"Sentinel Prime Log. Entry name: Welcome to the Heart of Darkness. Log Author; Bobby Horner. You know, when I was sent to Sentinel Prime I thought it was going to be the high point of my scientifically career. This is the Sector 7 Hoover Dam base of the modern age. Where the real cutting edge of Federation science goes on. I mean, it's kind of common knowledge that something secretive and important goes on behind the veil at Sentinel Prime, why else would it be so heavily guarded? As I got access to all the classified information I couldn't help but be enthralled by all this information. I naively dismissed all the "morally ambiguous" to word it nicely stuff I was told about as being stories meant to scare fresh blood like me. Then I saw the stuff for my own eyes, and then I realized that at it's core, the Federation is as bad as the Space Pirate Confederacy and the Kriken Empire."

This was just what Samuel had suspected from the encrypted information his ship was able to access. This place was filled with horrors that would shake a man to his very core. All the more reason that it had to all be destroyed now. He exited the room after determining that the other files mainly contained journal entries as inane as the lazy guards' conversations outside, video games probably played while off duty or when no one who cared enough about the regulations to enforce them was looking, messages to friends and family that were of course monitored to make sure that no classified information was leaked, pet projects composed by faculty members who possessed enough free time and boredom to do so, and an awful lot of smut. Apparently even those who worked at these facilities whose inner workings are classified above top secret weren't above looking at decidedly not work safe material, though there were quite a few of them stupid enough to actually save it to these computers, though it's quite possible that this is allowed.

After allowing himself a quick chuckle Samuel returned to the hub like room and went through the only remaining door that lay opposite of the one he came in through. He found himself in a hall, containing a bunch of tubes that held specimens, many of whom were quite alive and many of whom were immediately recognizable as Metroids. There was an almost universal scientific consensus and a mountain of evidence for the fact in all but name that Metroids would very rapidly mutate when exposed to different atmospheres and radiation levels, resulting in all but a core few traits being changed. These traits of course, the ability to drain, store, and "digest" energy and somehow grow from doing this, having roughly the same shape in the larval stage of life, and a vulnerability to cold and dark energy.

Aside from that, nothing, not even including the life cycle save for the larval stage (for some odd reason, the infant stage is more variable than the larval one) or method of birth was guaranteed to remain the same by the first generation of metroids born on a different planet. Apparently, Sentinel Prime's relatively high radiation levels and hyper-oxygenated atmosphere had caused the Metroids to grow large, cunning, and dangerous; putting more evidence to the centuries old adage of "everything is deadlier on Sentinel Prime." The average larva was twice as big as even the abnormally large Zebesian strain, and had double the normal amount of "teeth" that were three times longer and a good deal thicker than those on a Zebesian metroid while a crown of spikes ringed the top of their gelatinous bodies and a bony line divided their membrane into two. Here, their membrane was a forest green, more like the Zebesian strain than the light blue of the SR388 metroid.

Here, they also enjoyed the ability to offensively discharge stored energy in the form of lightning bolts and also possessed a rather odd form of photosynthesis that directly took light energy that radiated to it and added it to it's biological storage, allowing them to satiate their hunger without needing to consume prey. This ironically, made them less dangerous as they were extremely unlikely to attack without extreme provocation whenever light energy was abundant during their waking hours, and would indeed be satisfied with the life energy of plants or synthetic sources, only going after animal prey when no other choice is available or when provoked. This meant that releasing these metroids would probably do nothing to help Samuel's cause, so he simply ignored them, though he noted that one metroid seemed to always turn to keep its "front" facing him, having apparently noticed him. Samuel then immediately ducked down beneath the opaque part of the wall he was behind when the scientist tending to it turned around to see what the metroid was looking at.

"Eh, it's nothing..." The scientist muttered as he went back to recording his observations on the datapad. Samuel breathed out a sigh of relief as he went on, noting that the metroid that was always trying to look at him had once again deduced his location and once more started to turn around, rotating in it's tank, apparently out of boredom. Samuel was starting to think that this creature would be an unavoidable hazard to his operation, but it soon snapped out of it's stare when another scientist stepped in through the door that he had just passed through. "Ah, Jerry, nice to see you." Said the scientist who was attending to that particular metroid. This allowed Samuel to sneak to the door opposite to the one he entered unmolested; he then came across a long hallway that he quickly snuck through, plotting a course to a large, circular room.


	18. Confrontation

What he came across was a large greenhouse that contained a dazzling array of Sentinel's fauna and flora. Heavy turrets kept watch over the area at all times in case the inhabitants of the huge indoor habitat that easily stretched for a million acres ever got rowdy. This was the perfect place to lure Frank in...Its crowded terrain was not conducive to his massive Frame, and it offered plenty of cover from his arsenal. What's more, it had its host of natural hazards. Now he knew that these hazards could work both ways, but he knew that unless an animal sees one as food, if he was careful and left them alone, generally they would do the same. Frank on the other hand, was a psychopathic mass murderer and would probably make virtually no effort into not provoking the animals here. And if Samuel could hack into the turret controls, he'd be able to deal plenty of punishment to his nemesis.

He decided to check where his ship stated Frank's location as being, comparing this data to the information he gained from the map he determined that Frank was in the "Project Frankenstein refitting" room up until a few minutes ago, apparently he had finished getting some sort of refit, modification, or upgrade. This was going to be an complication of an truly enormous degree. The last thing he needed was Frank getting new additions and improvements to his arsenal and equipment.

But he had a vow of vengeance to keep; he had ghosts to put to rest. Upgrades or not, he was going to end it today. He looked around and located another terminal. He scanned it immediately and found another log file.

"Sentinel Prime Log. Entry Name: Sentinel Prime Megafauna. Log Author: Jack Bakker. This planet's megafauna is simply astounding in it's sheer lethality, of course even the small animals tend to be lethal in the extreme. Most megafauna on the planet is capable of killing a Federation Army Grunt or Marine Corpsman in full power armour in seconds if not with a single blow. Even heavy power armor only stacks the odds in favour of a Federation soldier against megafauna who weigh below a hundred kilos unless he has enough time and warning to fire with his heavy weaponry which typically ensures his victory against creatures who weigh under one to five tonnes depending on their load out. This of course is not a certainty in heavily wooded, swampy, or mountainous terrain where ambushes are easily made. But as deadly as it is and as conducive as some of the deadliest of this world's fauna have proven to be, I am firmly against the idea of outfitting them as beasts of war. The last thing I want is to be privy to a new addition to a long list of moral transgressions that go on in this facility. While I appreciate that the people in charge understand that compartmentalizing scientists doesn't work at all and thus give us full access to what goes on in this facility, I'm starting to wonder if it's worth the nightmares."

Yet another protest against whatever is going on this planet. Clearly something downright awful is going on in this facility. Samuel was starting to dread uncovering the secrets of this place, but still he continued on, slipping onto a lift that lead to a room beneath this massive indoor reservation that read "weapons testing." When he stepped in, he found that the room was quite occupied, but the lift he used was an apparently atypical method of entering, as the nearest person was a good hundred meters away. Samuel crouched down below the transparent part of the wall to avoid being detected; only briefly looking up to see what was being tested.

Apparently, some weapon with a short but wide barrel was being pointed at some metal targets made out of some of the toughest alloys in the cosmos. The gun fired once and launched forth a short, almost sandy rust red spurt from its barrel and didn't seem to kick up at all. The spurt flew at speeds that marked it as too fast to be any liquid without using a rather silly amount of pressure...then again with Chozo technology the definition of "absurdly impractical" was very different from that of humans. The brown material smacked into the cube of metal and began to eat away at it, causing it to rapidly begin to crumble into rust particulates. This effect began to spread across the cube, eating more and more of it until so much of it was gone that it collapsed upon itself and from there was totally reduced into a fine powder.

He then saw another target, a restrained human male in his forties, stripped of clothing, kicking and screaming as a second weapon was aimed at him. He had enough time to scream out before a blast of sickly green sand-like substance launched out just like the corrosion agent of the other gun. The material splattered against his chest and he began to undergo aeons of rot within a few all too horrifying seconds, while he screamed as loudly as he could in pure agony until that ability too was taken from him by the spreading rot. His skin turned black and shrivelled away, with his flesh following fractions of a second later, his organs followed suit while the moisture was drained from him before his skeleton rapidly ossified and then crumbled into powder.

The whole sight was horrific to say the least...some of the scientists looked clearly displeased that they were using their professions to this end, while others kept a professional attitude of apathy, and a few deranged members seemed to take some sick joy from this. Samuel then scanned the two weapons, first the red, then the green.

"Corrosion Beam: Scans indicate that this weapon was reverse engineered from Chozo technology. This weapon will cause inorganic material that it hits to undergo untold aeons worth of both chemical weathering within seconds of contact. A single uncharged beam shot with no other modifications can destroy ten tons of inorganic matter. However, how much material and how quickly it can destroy with each shot depends on just how able the affected material is able to resist chemical weathering."

"Decay Beam: Scans indicate that this weapon was reverse engineered from Chozo technology. This weapon will cause organic material that it hits to undergo untold aeons worth of rot within seconds of contact. A single uncharged beam shot can rot ten tons of organic matter. However, the beam's efficiency varies depending on the target."

Clearly, these were meant to be used as a pair, though they would be formidable on their own. The Corrosion beam would be unparalleled in it's ability to disarm targets, though it probably would go on to consume everything on the target's person save for the actual person, not damaging any part of them even down to the smallest hair on their heads save for their dignity when they find themselves naked. However, he wondered what it would do to materials that are neither wholly organic or inorganic like his interface suit.

The Decay beam however, he knew had no non-lethal applications. But there was little time to ponder on that matter; he found a replica of a wall in the Dreadnought that had Chozo writing on it. Curious, Samuel scanned it, noting that the Chozo script seemed to be very archaic.

"Chozo lore: Sentinels. Though we are more than willing and able to fight and watch over our lands ourselves, we have also sought to supplement our presence with great statues. Though some may deride them as mere constructs of stone, earth, and metal, theirs is an eternal vigil. Those whose evil hearts are seen by their cold eyes will never unlock their secrets, while those whose goodness has been witnessed by them shall be aided in any way they can. Those who respect them and treat them thusly will find them to be most benign allies, while those who mistreat and abuse them will suffer our wrath eternal."

He noticed that some variation of this lore showed up on pretty much every Chozo world that had their statue, telling them what to expect of these most mysterious watchers. But he had never seen this wrath materialize, so he ignored it since Frank was just a room away...or he was until he stepped into the Room in his full glory. He looked somewhat different from before, his pauldrons now curved upwards into spikes like his own, he had additional shoulder turrets, guns that emerged from the sides of his hips, two added mechanical arms that emerged from below his original pair that had no obvious weaponry save for the wicked claws and spiked knuckles on them, and a weird pair of inward curving fin-like blades that came from the inner part of his shoulder that had a gap between them, from which what looked like a singularity of some sort hung above his head. Samuel thus immediately decided to scan his opponent.

"Scan Log: Frank. Target shows an truly tremendous amount of upgrades, including devices whose signatures are consistent with Federation made reverse engineered Chozo technology and devices of an unknown origin. Target has all of your upgrades with the exclusion of the Luminoth made seeker missile and the affinity magmaul and imperialist, but appears to have the Corrosion and Decay beams amongst others to compensate. Target has no detected points that are any more vulnerable than the other. Chances of user victory: negligible."


	19. Rematch

Despite his Suit's pessimistic estimations, Samuel was undeterred, he would either end this now or die trying...Samuel broke the transparent material that separated him and the occupants of the lab with a left swing of his rifle butt before locking onto frank with his seeker missile, set it to use super missiles, then charged his super missiles. Yes this would use fifteen of them, but it meant that he would hit with fifteen times the force in one shot, firing forth five charged super missiles enhanced with burning and electric warheads that would detonate with a massive area of effect.

By now, all the scientists had flown the coop, so when the missiles slammed into his chest and exploded with an enormous thunder clap and blossomed into huge electrified fireballs and an almighty concussive wave that consumed the entire room, shattered all the windows, broke down the barriers between this room and then consumed the next room before rebounding back and giving Frank a double whammy. Indeed the blast was so ferocious that it began interfering with electronics throughout the facility, forcing most of them to reboot, including the turrets in the reserve. As his weapons could not harm himself through some miracle of technology, you were able to get into the lift before Frank could recover, at which point you leapt down into the indoor reserve.

He managed to get quite some distance before an enraged Frank emerged from the lift, blasting out with his cluster missile function of his AstroMag Cannon before revealing the weaponry in his additional arms. The four equal sections of his arm rose up and revealed strange mechanisms that glowed with a blue light that heralded the firing of a pair of massive yellow beams that probably had the power to flash vaporize tanks that he barely rolled out of the way of.

Frank leapt down into the facility, snarling as he did so. "I'm going to kill you! Slowly, painfully..." Frank roared out, calming down with his second sentence. "You've been a real nuisance boy. Most people who go after me and live, give up. But you keep on going time after time!" He points out, roaring louder and more viciously than any beast of Sentinel Prime, seemingly having already forgotten about killing everyone on the Alimbic mothership in hopes of discouraging you from further anti-federation activity. "Is it fear or courage that compels you runt!" He asks, his voice rising with anger as he tries to seek you through the dense under brush.

He took this time to take a pot-shot at him with a fully charged shot from your beam, sending forth three massive white beams that danced with all sorts of energies that exploded against his chest, causing him to disappear in a multi-coloured cloud-like fireball that bloomed out from the impact of the beams, which was followed by yet another beam and a charged combi-missile blast that created yet another barrage of huge fireballs and an cataclysmic outpouring of energy.

But Frank emerged from the ruins and fired forth his own much bigger charged shot that sent his own trio of much larger and more powerful white beams, the first exploding at his feet, the second hitting him in the chest and exploding, and the third hitting him right between the eyes and completely blinding him for a good portion of time as he was sent flying hundreds of feet upwards and thousands of feet backwards. When he finally hit the ground, he entered a highly unceremonious roll and only stopped when his back hit a tree while upside down. Gravity soon peeled him off, but he was completely dazed and only now noticed that his helmet and rifle had been left some distance in front of him, having been jarred from his head and grasp by the sheer force of the impact.

But just as he was about to reclaim these items, Frank had caught up to him. He looked down upon Samuel and appeared to scan him. But even though his face was obscured behind that turquoise visor...Samuel could tell his expression had twisted to one of rage. The massively muscular genetically engineered power armour clad cyborg behemoth plucked Samuel with his left hand and lifted him to eye level. "You're that little runt who got away on Cylosis...Come to avenge mommy and daddy? PATHETIC!" Frank started in a tone that was at first startled, then mocking, then a roaring one of pure disgust. Frank then whipped back his left arm and tossed the teenager forward, sending him smashing into a tree and straight through it, smashing through three other trees.

"I bet you also want to avenge those people I killed on that mother ship too? Well, maybe those were the most life changing days of your miserable little life! But you know what is was for me? Just another day on the job!" He said as he latched onto Samuel's chest with the grapple beam and yanked him forward so that he could whip the beam downward and smash him into the ground, causing Sam to spit out a bit of blood, but before he could so much as push himself onto his knees Frank threw a right punt into his left side, knocking all the air out of him and sending him spinning into the air and smashing into the ground.

Samuel this time managed to crawl to his helmet and equipped it and grabbed his assault rifle before standing back up while Federation army soldiers rappelled down and started to deploy. Samuel fired off his assault rifle thrice, shooting at three federation soldiers who froze over instantly, now being quite dead before shooting off a charged electrolob blast into a fireteam of five federation soldiers, frying them instantly.

But more soldiers kept on coming to supplement Frank; threatening to overwhelm Samuel, especially as specialized troopers came in. He could kill the bog standard Army grunts and Marines in one shot, Veterans with their better armour needed two shots to kill, while Elite Soldiers could take an fully charged shot with their superior equipment, but soon Heavy Troopers started coming down with their large suits of armour that gave them far greater resistance to harm, taking the equivalent of four fully charged shots before dropping while firing off powerful heavy weapons.

Then came in the Commandos who had all the firepower and durability of the heavy troopers, but the benefits of greatly improved agility, and the Devastator suits, wielders of enormous suits of armour that allowed them to access enormously powerful weaponry while taking enormous amounts punishment. Samuel tried to take cover, but a barrage of explosive shells spat out from the Gatling pattern barrels of the Assault Cannons of the Devastator troops forced him out of that area while Frank fired off shots from his new position in the Federation rear. What's more, such variants like Elite and Veteran Commandos, heavies, and Devastators existed, and these were stupendously tough soldiers who despite being individually no match for Samuel, would soon overwhelm him through numbers.

But all this commotion was starting to attract the attention of the fauna in this reserve, who made their presence known through the launching of bolts of electricity, quills, acid spittle, and fire breath as they emerged from the forest, having been provoked by the huge outpouring of federation firepower. Samuel's suit informed him that some sort of psychic field was being detected, and he breathed a sigh of relief, believing that somehow, the Chozo statues that the Federation were studying were beginning to rise up against them.

Even as the massive havoc troopers, whose armour was more like a tank with legs than anything one would call a power suit began to arrive, the fauna came forth with heavy artillery of their own in the form of thermal plasma blasts of the Firetyrants, a beam lancing through a group of Elite Army soldiers, reducing them into a mass of plasma while raking them with suppressive fire from their quills. Frank blew the head off of one Firetyrant with a fully charged shot from his AstroMag cannon, but two lances of plasma hit him in the right shoulder and chest and forced him to take a step back while a group of Utahraptor like Emberknights emerged and began spewing forth a barrage of fireballs that consumed a platoon of Federation marines.

Samuel rose from the cover he was hiding behind and began firing off beam shots as fast as he could, using his Imperialist to score the occasional headshot against extremely tough foes, incinerating their heads instantly with powerful red laser beams before switching to the affinity battlehammer to scatter them around with the nuclear propelled mortar shells. But when he was forced back by a sweep of Assault Cannon fire loaded with explosives shells, he felt that he was backing into something hard and rocky...a group of Chozo statues.


	20. Shifting tides

The Federation's outpouring of fire was quite indiscriminate, and soon their rounds began to impact the Chozo statues, destroying some minor statues and totems while defacing the more iconic major statues. A charged-combi- missile blast from Frank blew out about a score of Chozo statuary with the shockwave destroying about another dozen and damaging the others, destroying one in particular that seemed to represent some sort of great Chozo leader. This seemed to be the final straw for these ancient Sentinels. In response their eyes began to glow red and they seemed to send some sort of message to every Chozo artefact in the complex.

All over, their ancient mechanisms came to life and rose up against those who contained them. A octet statues kept as decorations in the main control room of the defence grid rose to their feet and took on a silvered sheen while the serene glowing blue tron-lines of their forms changed to a threatening crimson. The operators of the facility began to panic as advancing waves of energy sent forth by clawing motions from the now angry statues swept through the facility, followed by powerful laser beams and electrical blasts from their eyes and hands.

Chozo Ghosts also began to appear in the facility, having finally had enough with the desecrators of their resting places and descending down from the higher plane of existence that virtually the entire Chozo species went to for the sole purpose of destroying this evil place, angered by five millennia of cruel experiments, desecration of their vessel, the absolute affront to nature the Sentinel Prime facility represented, the damaging of their statues, and the evil that they saw in the one called Frank.

The defences that kept the wildlife out of the facility began to fail just after having rebooted, and as soon as this fact was noted, all manner of beasts began to invade, smashing through the doors and swarming in, causing yet more chaos and havoc throughout the massive facility. In desperation, the Federation called all the reinforcements they could, ships coming in from picket fleet duty in the system to land fresh troops.

But as the troops began to arrive, the great flying beasts of Sentinel prime at the behest of the Chozo, began to strike out at the dropships, soldiers who had expected an simple animal containment found that drakes incinerated their ships, raked their hulls apart, or plucked out the engines while swarms of large arthropodoids would carpet others and quickly tear them open to kill those inside, ripping them apart, peeling open their armour and tearing out skin, flesh, and organs while yet other beasts tried to resist them every step of the way. But there were still plenty of soldiers who landed, especially as the Federation started to understand the full extent of this uprising and began to adjust for it. The arriving soldiers tried to take up positions, but even when they could repel the animals, the Chozo and their creations would almost always prove too much.

In the reserve itself, more federation troops began to arrive, but by now the total chaos that this facility was in had spread to this area, and the metroids who had once been contained were now released out into the open. Larval metroids soon began to latch themselves onto the soldiers and drained their power suit energy before devouring the bio-energy held inside, sucking their prey dry even as they screamed. Those soldiers who had cyro-weaponry immediately deployed them and froze many of the metroids before shattering them with bullets, missiles, anything that had the power to shatter, but they kept on coming, with other life stages of metroids coming in.

Frank snarled and responded by sweeping the entire area with a trio of three, huge contiguous beams that had the power of a charged shot from Samuel's assault rifle delivered every second and swept it across the reserve in all directions, not caring it he hit his own men before firing off guided and charged super cluster missiles whose diffusion blasts shattered an enormous array of frozen corpses and a few still living creatures. But the Chozo statues that he had missed had by now risen and were advancing upon him.

He shrugged off their shockwaves, beams, orbs, and blasts that had slew so many other federation soldiers and blasted the head off of the first one with a super missile shot before obliterating another one as it approached him; arms raised with it's maw opened to prepare to fire off a red beam of energy with a flurry of beam shots. His added arms opened up and fired off their light energy blasts that charred four other statues into ashes before being hit in the back by a trio of Chozo ghost orb blasts.

Flailing around, frank turned off his ice beam and destroyed them with a charged shot from his AstroMag cannon, causing the three ghosts to vanish in a cascade of energy before reactivating it, only to feel a Chozo statue holding the cannon downward while the others started to grab all around him and try to pull him down to rip him limb from limb, firing off an constant barrage of energy into him as they did so. "Get! OFF!" he roared as a strange device of an make that Samuel didn't recognize on his left arm shone and created a temporary naked singularity that sucked in and destroyed the statues before the singularity dissipated in a burst of white energy.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Frank growled, now frothing with rage as he fired off his Corrosion beam, which ate at his shielding, briefly opening a big enough hole for some of it to hit him in the breast. The youth looked on in horror as pieces of his suit began to rust apart and fall off, the hole being on his left pec, measuring about four centimetres across with another one centimetre wide hole about five centimetres down. Then Frank fired again, this time more of it landing and hitting Samuel's groin and left thigh, and soon the armour there began to rust apart.

In response Samuel armed and threw a power grenade, an explosive with five times the potency of a power bomb that quickly exploded in Frank's Face and blotted him out in a huge white flash. Samuel then once again repeated the strike with which he started the fight, firing off five combi-missiles and using up the rest of that particular weapon before firing off three fully charged shots from his beam and two similar attacks from his missiles.

Frank vanished behind an massive cloud of firepower, but Samuel wasn't finished, his ship flew towards the area, diving down while other Federation troopers who had survived took some pot-shots at the teenager as he began to run as fast as his legs could carry. Some smaller flying creatures let loose explosive balls of chemicals that killed some of the federation soldiers as they were blown apart and scattered into bone chips, torn limbs, armour fragments, and bloody mash by the explosions after having arrived to replace the slaughtered creatures. But the real damage came when the Darkspire flew overhead

The vessel opened up its bomb bay doors and released a rain of guided munitions that dispersed and quickly reduced everything in a three by one kilometre rectangle into an massive inferno that bloomed into an even larger and deafening roaring blaze as cluster munitions spread out and detonated like an billion energy grenades, killing thousands. Two Federation Devastators let loose anguished cries of agony as some bombs fell inches behind them and tore apart their armour like tin cans and pulped their bodies while a Federation Havoc who was once keeping a group of Emberknights pinned down with a double barreled autocannon that pumped out energy sheathed 105mm rounds at automatic rates was hit in the back by an full sized bomb that blew him apart.

Some Federation commandos tried to catch the running Samuel whose speed booster had by now activated, but a bomb fell in front of them and a thunderous roar followed by a huge red blazing fireball and an enormous shockwave more or less atomized them before they could get off a shot. Samuel kept on running, trying to head for a frontline guarded by Chozo statues, Firetyrants, Dragons, and other beasts who were a force to be reckoned with at range while a Federation Grizzly main battle tank fired off a shot that missed Samuel by a matter of only a few yards before an bomb hit the top of its turret and blew it apart into scrap metal while a heavy weapons nest frantically squeezed off some shots with their heavy machine gun; letting loose huge energy sheathed bullets until three bomblets fell into their nest and blasted the gunner's lower body off while totally eradicating the ammo loader.

Three federation IFVs swivelled around and fired off their autocannons at a duet of Chozo Statues some distance off and started up the firing sequence for their missiles, but a duet of bombs fell amidst their number and peeled open the leading vehicle before throwing it end over end before a bunch of submunitions that had fell into it's now open chassis exploded and caused the vehicle to be blown into shrapnel. Another vehicle had its ammo bay torn open by the shockwave, at which point the blooming red fireball cooked off the ammunition and caused the vehicle to disintegrate entirely while one IFV simply had its turret blown off while the submunitions ripped apart it's chassis in a series of explosions.

A Federation drop ship that had finished landing was rent open by a falling bomb, while a second bomb peeled away the armour at it's right side and the submunitions caused the vehicle to disintegrate entirely. A platoon of Federation marines let loose a spray of fire to pin down a group of war wasps, but a bomb came to land amongst them, immediately incinerating their lead members. Others were sent flying while limbs were torn from their bodies like wings from a fly and shrapnel shredded the others apart into a bloody canned puree and others were cooked alive in their armour by the sudden heat.

Even as the bombs stopped falling and apparently every federation soldier in the reserve had died in the immense energy bomb bombardment, Frank; sheathed in the yellow field of energy of the speed booster emerged from the black clouds of smoke that were rising up from the burning fields left from the Darkspire's bombing run as it pulled out of the area. Frank was running far faster than any human, even an Augmented one could even though both had their speed boosters activated.

He attempted to lead his shot and charged up a beam blast, this time adding the Corrosion beam to this combination; he had ceased to find this amusing anymore and would no longer toy with his prey. "Die!" Frank snarled out in an unusually cold manner as a multi-coloured blast of energy bloomed out of his AstroMag cannon, erupting forth three enormous bolts of unimaginable power and hit the ground just behind Samuel; blossoming forth into a huge series of fireballs that tore into the ground and created an unimaginably deafening roaring shockwave that sent Samuel spinning forward in the air, flying head over heels.

Even as he flew, the Corrosion beam ate his armour suit, it's dusty remains sloughed off of him in great quantities until he was left in his interface suit, which it could not consume due to not being truly inorganic. The last part of his suit to be destroyed was his helmet, which disintegrated as he touched the ground. Truth be told, his interface suit was not completely spared from harm either, the part covering his right pectoral region and the underlying two layers of clothing was shredded almost completely save for a few scraps, and his right shoulder and left knee were completely bare now, the damage going to his undershirt, as was his left abdominal region, all ripped apart by Frank's last ditch shot.

Virtually all the spare weapons he had brought were destroyed, even the paralyzer pistol, but right now all he could think about was the fact that he was in pain. An huge amount of it in fact. He had probably broken at least five vertebrate and his legs, shallow but open wounds were present on the right side of his forehead and he had burn wounds on his right pectoral region, and even as the nanites in his blood began to repair his wounds, he could only manage an anguished groan. His ship came up to provide covering fire for Frank, but he hit it with a charged beam blast, causing it to corrode away into a rain of rust particulates.

Frank in the meantime, tried to single handily bum rush what he saw as a defensive line of mere beasts, statues, and dead men, firing off blasts from all of his weapons, killing dozens and shattering two statues while blasting out the heart of a dragon with a uni-beam blast but a plasma blast from a fire Tyrant hit his right thigh and caused him to stagger back slightly while he fired off his AstroMag cannon rapidly in a fifteen degree arc, killing some creatures with ease only for a Chozo Statue's breath blast to hit him in the right shoulder and throw off the aim with his AstroMag while rapidly fired quills hit his left abdominal area like machine gun bullets. He took a massive fully charged Chozo ghost blast to his left pectoral area, once again knocking him around while he destroyed the offending ghost, two others two statues, and a dozen creatures but a huge plasma blast from a massive Firetyrant to his chest proved to be too much and Frank flew off to a deeper part of the facility to recover.


	21. Rebirth

But this was enough for Samuel to have recovered, his wounds already having finished knitting themselves. He staggered back to his feet and looked around, the Federation had been forced back, but Frank was still at large. He looked over his situation...while his interface suit still held the upgrades his old one had, he couldn't use any of them until he found another compatible suit of armour. And without even an emergency pistol to his young name, Samuel certainly couldn't take on Frank without it. His interface suit's energy tanks were all depleted, so he himself would receive any hits he took rather than his shielding.

This was not an ideal situation...so he needed to find some manner of energy recharge. He looked at one federation assault rifle that looked usable enough and shrugged as he took it as his own...it still had a full clip, though he decided that the soldier's hand still stuck to it would not do at all, so he pried it off. He still had the map uploaded to his mind, though he could no longer get real time data from it, it was now more like a still shot in his memory. He remembered the location of a nearby emergency station and staggered into a lift, needing to extend out his left arm to catch himself as he stumbled around.

He panted out as the lift descended to a deep level of the research station. He reached a level, apparently untouched by the chaos above where scientists were still working. Unlike last time, they were on alert and thus immediately noticed them. One of them, bald on his head but possessing a full brown beard was the first to speak. "You! What is your business here?" He demanded to know, on edge now that the facility was going to hell. "Frank...all I want, is to get Frank." He responded, exasperated but quickly recovering as he raised his assault rifle.

"Now...as you can see, I'm no longer quite in the condition to take him on...but if you could show me any fancy super weapon that could help me do this...I would be really appreciative..." He finished, causing the apparent lead scientist to cock his head backwards a bit. "Did you say Frank? Right then, I will help you. I cannot stand that butcher...There is a prototype suit, made not only to reverse engineer but exceed a Chozo power suit. It is in a room to the right door. There is also a ship that goes along with it, also a prototype; it is called the Delano 7. The suit will also come with a specialized shock coil that can drain energy and feed it to its user, an alt mode of its very own that comes with its own unique weapons system. All I ask for in return is that you help me and my colleagues get out of here safely." He responded, looking straight at the tall youth who considered his words.

"Right then...I'll see what I can do." Samuel responded as he followed the scientist's advice and found the suit. It was primarily blue, but it had geometric green lines that ran across various parts of it. It didn't seem to have an apparent visor, but there was a green line that ran down the middle of the helmet. It's arm cannon was best described as an arm blade-gun, it looked sharp enough to be used as an legitimate edged weapon, and two plane wing shaped blades jutted out from its shoulders.

Samuel gave a brief wolf whistle of admiration before reaching out to touch the suit. But as he did, it disappeared and dispersed into a cloud of blue particles as he stepped onto the circle where it was being held. It then began to swirl around the seventeen year old; it's whirling intensifying before the boy seemed to vanish completely. When the light finally died down, he was now equipped with the suit that soon analysed and adjusted itself to the modules stored in its interface suit.

His arm and leg armour turned a shade of indigo while the green lines turned blue to match the gravity suit's blue visor. A little emitter on the bottom of his left arm emerged for his grapple beam, the suit also came with other upgrades, for one it provided superior physical enhancement over Samuel's old suit, it's shielding also blocked out more damage, and he gained a host of upgrades for his alt mode, named the lockjaw. He gained tripwire bombs and tripwire power bombs, the spring jaw, the boost jaw, the spider jaw.


	22. Final Round, Strife!

He stepped out and checked his arsenal; he now had affinity weapon versions of all six major subweapons, including the shock coil. He switched from beams to the shock coil and had a suit prompt that read "initiating beam and subweapon stacking...stacking complete...", meaning that his subweapons were now upgraded by his beam weapons, just like the power beam was upgraded by further beam weapons. This made him grin a bit underneath his helmet. "Nice..." he admitted as he looked around and saw the Delano 7. It had the same general colour scheme as he did or did before his upgrades were applied, blue with green lines. It had amazing looking forward swept frontal wings and rear delta stub wings that complimented the forward ones nicely.

Samuel had to admit that he was something of a space jockey; he knew a good ship when he saw one, and he knew he was looking at the best in the galaxy. But he had to finish something before he could take off with that ship. Samuel then noticed a door that was heavily locked and barred opposite of the one he went in.

"Alright, two questions, where's Frank and what's behind that door?" He asked of the scientist who had helped him before. "Frank is behind the door to the north...and behind that door is another supersoldier, I tried to protest against his creation, but they wouldn't listen. He was given the best traits out of all the deadliest predators in the known universe, given the best biological and technological enhancements we could. He was intended to be a more cost effective and more loyal version of the Frankenstein project, but he still had the mind of a mortal despite having Olympian like power. He went mad, so we locked him up there, unable to destroy him for a foolish belief that he can be recovered held by our superiors...I try to improve his condition every day, I argue day and night, but always they refuse...we call him...Kanden, part of project Enoema." The scientist responded, prompting Samuel to turn around to face him.

"Sounds nasty, and sounds like just the kind of guy I need to help me bring down Frank..." Samuel said as he hacked the controls of the door with his scan visor and disabled the locks, allowing an angry yellow and black beast to emerge. It was hugely built and stood at some nine feet, a good deal of that being it's long and thick neck that ended in a almost comically tiny four eyed head. This creature...Kanden snarled with seething anger and locked his eyes on the scientist that helped Samuel out so much. "You! LIAR! TRAITOR!" Kanden roared out, pointing an accusing finger at him as he rushed forward, grabbed the scientist's neck between his powerful clawed hands and smashed him to the wall before dragging him up.

"Whoa, I thought you said you protested his creation?" Samuel asked of the scientist. "He told you what! This guy is the asshole who had me tortured on a daily basis! Every nerve ending of mine has known only agony for my entire existence thanks to you!" Kanden shouted back, causing Samuel to look back at the scientist. "Please...please don't kill me!" The scientist begged, looking to Samuel for help. "I think it's better to let you pay for your mistakes...Kanden, go ahead, kill him" Samuel responded coldly.

Though Kanden had no lips with which to smile, he obviously relished in this opportunity and began to squeeze his captive's neck with his hugely powerful fingers. He kept on squeezing, watching his eyes bulge and his tongue loll out of his mouth before applying so much pressure that his windpipe caved in and his head promptly burst like a water balloon, spraying blood, brains, teeth, and bone chips in all directions. Samuel could have sword that Kanden purposefully swallowed one of his airborne eyeballs.

Kanden then turned to face the other scientists and promptly shot them all with his volt driver, causing them to fry as terrawatts of energy pumped into their body at the gigavolt level with mega-ampere lethality. Each scientist who was hit with the blast immediately began to drop to their knees while their eyeballs and other such vulnerable exploded into a gelatinous mess while they convulsed on the ground. "Right, so I'm going to send you some upgrade data, because I'm going to ask one favour of you. I'll help you blow this place up sky high and get out of here if you help me bring down another supersoldier..." Samuel offered, looking at the Enoema straight in the eyes.

"I'm listening..." Kanden replied as Samuel gave him the data for the upgrades, equipping him with a huge array of new equipment that made him into the match of Samuel, his yellow eyes became blue, while the rest turned purple. He eyed his newly upgraded exterior and felt even more invincible. "Right, so the guy's name is Frank and he's beyond that door." Samuel told his newfound ally. "Frank? I've always been dreaming of having the chance to prove that I'm better than him...consider the deal made shortie..." Kanden answered, his deep voice having the impression that it was being spoken out of a distortive vocoder. "My name's not shortie...well since you're probably not going to tell anyone I guess it won't hurt to say that my name's Samuel von Sanders, the last Cylosian whose Alter Ego is the Bounty Hunter S.V.S" He informed the massively built insectoid supersoldier.

"S.V.S? That's the best you could come up with? You just took your initials...bah, enough of this, let's kill that muscle-bound loony..." He growled back, turning to face the door. Samuel nodded and lead him into the door, finding Frank in a massive room that apparently served as his quarters. The Behemoth, who had fully recovered by now then turned from a console that worked as a backup control for the research station, revealing that he was much smarter than he looked as he was coordinating a successful counter offensive from this room. But then he turned around to face the newcomers and seemed to be able to figure out Samuel's identity almost instantly despite his totally new aesthetic.

"Well, look at what the cat dragged in. Little Baby Sanders, thinks he's all grown up now and even went and stole a new suit. You even brought in Lil' Kanden. Sorry Sanders, but if you think a few upgrades and an ally is going to help you, then you are an even bigger idiot than I would have guessed. Now return that defective product and that suit back where you found it and I'll go find you a cell where you can rot blind and helpless for the rest of your life in solitary confinement rather than just kill you painfully here and now, or would the other way around be more compelling?" He said as he glared at the two foes gathered before him, looking down at them as if they weren't even worthy of breathing the same air he did.

"I'm not leaving until you pay for every crime you've committed Frank." Samuel responded, causing Frank to laugh, his deep booming voice filling the entire room. "Oh look at you, the same little runt who hid like a little bitch when I killed his mommy in front of him, locked up in fear and soiled his pants and had to be rescued by his whore of a girlfriend, got his ass kicked when he caught me by surprise, cried like a bitch when I slaughtered his foster family and caused him to break up with his only other friend, and got his ass kicked when he again got me by surprise and had to be rescued by a bunch of fluffy animals and dead hippies now thinks he's tough enough to take me on when I've had more than enough time to prepare and even got a few upgrades." He shot back, cruelty and spite seeping into his words as he listed the most major encounters between the two of them in the most demeaning manner he could manage.

"Look Sanders, I may let you think I'm some kind of dumb brute who doesn't pull any of the strings and gets used like a puppet by armchair generals. But I was designed to not only counter but exceed the space pirate enforcers in every way, Ridley especially. I'm not only Ridley's physical superior, I'm also smarter than him; quicker witted too. That's nothing to sneeze at because that Dragon is a very smart little bastard. You seriously don't think that I haven't planned multiple ways to protect myself from the very weapon systems I took a large part in designing? You seriously think i wouldn't have saved the best bits for myself?" He continued his tone condescending rather than raging, he was going to verbally dissect Samuel's motives, personality, and very being with the kind of lecture he reserved for only a select few.

"You may think that you're the centre of my universe Little Sanders, but I've got much bigger fish to fry than you. As I said before, what were the biggest, most important events of your life to you, were just another day on the job to me. I've done what I've done to your life to tens of thousands of others, and do you know what I've done to those who can and do try to seek revenge?" Frank continued as he had one wall transform into a transparent form, revealing a macabre trophy rack, containing what must have been hundreds of bodies of those who tried to go after Frank and make him pay.

"Now I'll admit...you got farther than all the rest. But you know what? I think that has more to do with your annoying tendency to have powerful friends than any skill on your part. The way of the Cylosian Elite Guardsman and the Alimbic Warrior are jokes. You may think that you're all hot shit because you can take down a billion no-name grunts and low level secret projects. But the truth is that you're just an nuisance. You're just a frightened little kid who wants to make the ghosts of his parents proud. And you Kanden, don't make me laugh. You're a failure, a mistake...you weren't smart enough to handle the power, so your little chalk stick brain broke. I guess the federation was worried about more creations like me proving to be so intelligent that they become secret big wigs in their own right like I did. I don't blame them. But now...to end this..." Frank concluded, bringing out all of his huge arsenal.

"Yes, let's..." Samuel and Kanden said simultaneously as they prepared to face down this Dark Heart of the Federation. Kanden let loose a barrage of Volt driver shots, enhanced by his beam weaponry, giving them tremendous hitting power as a quartet of bolts hit his armoured chest, prompting a circle in his visor to appear before firing off a thin ray that exploded at Kanden's feet and sent him rolling across the ground while Samuel fired his shock coil at frank. This drained some energy from Frank and transferred it to Samuel, but Frank had an absolutely gargantuan energy storage and shrugged it off as he smashed a button that teleported them to another part of the facility, atop a huge open landing pad, where he would have the room to fight them.

Frank whipped forth his left sidearm blade that extended into a chain-like weapon held together by an intangible connective force at Samuel, smashing him in the chest and sending him flying back while Frank was blindsided by a charged volt driver blast from Kanden, temporarily distorting his vision. But Frank's added mechanical arms pointed at the two comrades in arms and fired off two lances of yellow solar energy that burned through the air and seared into the ground, forcing them to use their space jumps to quickly avoid the incoming attacks.

Lightning shot forth from Frank's extended left hand while he fired off an AstroMag shot at Kanden to his right , shocking Samuel and knocking Kanden backwards a significant distance. But the Enoema quickly recovered by flipping in the air so that he would land on his feet and entered stinglarva mode, two industrial pings sounding through the air in succession as he boosted into Frank's left leg and dropped a power tail bomb before boosting again and getting out of the way to fire off a charged Combi-Volt-driver blast at Frank's face just as the explosive detonated and sent forth a massive blast wave that dealt Frank a powerful double whammy.

Samuel strafed around Frank, shooting his shock Coil, but Frank pressed some buttons on his arm cannon and five yellow beams of deadly energy lanced down from the heavens and began to move across the battlefield, seeking their targets and forcing them to start using erratic manoeuvres to dodge the incoming beams. But once the beams dissipated Frank fired off a blast of thunder at Samuel that did relatively little damage but had a huge amount of knockback that hurled him like a ragdoll until his side smacked into the walls of the hangar while he fired off a blast of lightning at Kanden that would have done heavy damage to most targets, but Kanden was a creature of electricity and shrugged off most of the damage and used the opportunity to fire off the highly destructive charged super seeker missile combo.

Once again Frank vanished in an series of fireballs that was joined in by three more firings of this deadly attack from both Samuel and Kanden that created a huge array of booming shockwaves that cracked the ground, split trees, shattered the earth, and deafened the ear, erupting fireballs that continued to burn as fluid spread itself all over, and an electrical cloud that fried all they touch. But Frank once again emerged from the ashes and responded, having now acquired the seeker missile, combined it with his cluster missile mode to respond with a greatly scaled up version of the two's attack.

This resulted in pretty much everything in front of frank vanishing as if there was some sort of nuclear detonation, clearing out huge swathes of the forest as collateral damage and leaving charred animal corpses and black stains on the ground as trees snapped like twigs and then burst into flames. Clearly Frank's claims of being an even greater ravager than Ridley were not completely without merit. But Samuel and Kanden were still very much standing, and Samuel quickly reclaimed his lost energy by firing forth his shock coil and grapple beam and activating the drain feature of the grapple voltage, with Kanden following suit.

This almost immediately replenished their energies at Frank's expense and they two kept it up, strafing around him and continuing to drain his energy. But he would have none of this and leapt up into the air and activated his back mounted thrusters and rocketed into the sky to fire off a volley of AstroMag and solar beam shots before smashing into the ground and slamming his left fist into the ground, creating a huge shockwave that sent the two flying away. He then once again took into the air and flew to the Chozo dreadnought, prompting the two of them to follow with the space jump.

Frank fired off a barrage of energy pulses from his shoulder cannons as he turned around before bringing his feet down and landing, rapidly firing every weapon he had to create a staggering display of firepower, throwing all sorts of projectiles and beams into the night sky. But the two powered on through and landed as thunder began to rumble in the distance and the pitter patter of rain began. The sky was dark and brooding, in a way, a reflection of the combatants. Neither of whom would back down, and neither of whom would ever stop until the other side was dead.

Samuel fired off his shock coil as he landed while Kanden fired off two charged shots, causing Frank to stagger back, only to respond with a charged combi-judicator blast that created a huge freezing wall with three layers that coated both of his enemies in a thick layer of ice, at which point he grabbed them with his added arms and hurled them behind him so that he could fire off a charged AstroMag orb that exploded into a huge multi-coloured fireball that erupted with smaller subexplosions perilously close to the Chozo Dreadnought that was now facing him.

He honestly didn't care, the era of the Hypersapients was long over. They were now a resource to be exploited rather than any sort of people to be treated with respect or dignity. Not even his prior difficulties with the wrathful Chozo spirits and technology could change his opinion. Just some idiots who didn't know when to quit if you asked him as two other people who fit that description got out and fired off charged seeker missile blasts that erupted into diffusion explosions that briefly obscured his vision.

Samuel and Kanden kept on firing more of these blasts, unleashing five each upon Frank. But he was not down, not by a long shot. He brought up his long barrelled AstroMag cannon and fired off a multi-coloured lancing beam of energy from the cannon as the rain began to pour in mind boggling amounts on everything it could touch and lightning crackled in the sky, with loud booming thunder following. Due to the hyperoxygenated atmosphere, fires began to start in the forest, indeed...fires on this planet didn't really stop until they had nothing left to burn due to the rich amounts of oxygen.

Something that he planned to exploit even as he was still partially burning from the thermal components of their missiles. He kept on sweeping the beam to catch his targets, using his free hand to punch some commands into a console at the base of his arm cannon to start making him glow with an hugely bright aura of energy that would cut any damage he would receive in half, applying it after the prior damage reduction of his shielding.

Samuel space jumped up three times in succession, causing Frank's beam to streak across the Chozo dreadnought and damage it's exterior, decapitating one of the statues on it that looked like they were for decoration while cutting into it somewhat as he altered his course to bring his buzzsaw of energy to hit frank in the face, causing him to stumble backwards and make him beam jerk upwards and further deface the dreadnought while he once again called down the quintet of beams from the sky to pursue Kanden.

As Kanden sought cover from the beams on the mighty exterior of the crashed dreadnought, Samuel kept on going back and forth, hitting Frank's head with screw attacks while making sure to avoid the contained singularity that rested above his head. But Frank shot out a grapple beam that grabbed Samuel by the right leg and allowed him to be whipped forward and smash into the dreadnought and hit it's walls and slide off of it while rain poured down it's contours. Frank fired off another one of his extremely devastating cluster-combi-missile blasts that once again consumed virtually everything in front of him in a cascade of fireballs.

Samuel groaned as he got up, barely an energy tank left remaining while Frank gloated and fired off a unibeam blast that punched into the dreadnought's hull, but once again, the blue lines of the Chozo technology turned red all across the Dreadnought, and Samuel watched as Red beams from the eyes of every piece of "decoration" on the dreadnought lanced out at Frank's chest and hit him there, causing him to snarl and roar in defiance, trying to step even as the beams pushed him back. But then the turrets of the ship trained their guns on him and with only the defenses meant to repel fighters, bombers, gunships, and other smallcraft, blasted him off of the level he was standing on completely and sent him plummeting down some three hundred feet.

Samuel found Kanden, who had three energy tanks left, and got him to follow him over the ledge where they found a severely damaged and injured, with him having lost his left birth arm and both of his mechanical arms but by no means dead Frank. The two of them leapt down and fired off charged blasts to keep him down as they approached and hit the ground training their energy draining weapons on him to recover energy and further weaken him. He managed to stagger back up and started to fire off AstroMag cannon blasts while the two began to make an evasive charge at him, firing off charged shots at every opportunity they could.

He fired off some missiles from his shoulders and fired off ten rapid pulses from his cannon, but a charged beam shot hit him in the left pectoral area, he squeezed off another shot that missed his target by an inch, but a second charged shot hit him in the right abdominal region and left an icy mark as he spun around due to the momentum of the blast. He fired off a cluster missile burst that missed wildly, going out into the distance until they ran out of propellant that dropped over some jungle far ahead and more or less turned a good sized part of the forest into a burning parking lot.

Kanden ran to the left and fired off a charged shot that hit Frank's right shoulder cluster of weapons and blasted it off into icy chunks and forced Frank to spin slightly to the right, at which point he pointed his AstroMag cannon at Samuel who fired a charged shot into the barrel of the AstroMag as he prepared to fire off a combi-cluster missile blast, causing his most powerful attack to explode in his arm cannon and blow it apart, sending Frank's arm flying upward. Kanden raced forward and fired at Frank's right shoulder, causing him to spin to the right as he lost the weapons there, trying to fire off a blast from his singularity, only for Kanden and Samuel to blow off the fins that kept the singularity in place with charged shots and causing the singularity to vanish.

Desperate Frank shot off his Uni-beam, getting off one shot, but Samuel rolled beneath it and shot off a charged shot into his chest and causing the devices to explode as Frank tried to shoot off another blast. Finally, Samuel finished the job with a charged shot to the right side of the neck that caused the behemoth to stagger in that direction before falling backwards and smashing through the wall behind him with his bulk, and by the time he hit the ground, pieces of his armor blasted off all over him, missing limbs, burn marks and frozen over portions of his frame; he was dead.

Samuel looked at the corpse of Frank, moved up to stand atop his chest and had his helmet dissipate in a flash of blue light, at which point he took the time to spit on Frank's corpse before bringing his helmet back with another command. "Burn in hell..." Samuel growled as rain poured down the once seemingly invincible Frank, with only the blaze of the forest before them and the flash of lightning illuminating it. Samuel called the Delano 7, linked to his new command visor and the ship found an automated route out, at which point he had the vessel look for any ship that Kanden could take, the vessel quickly finding a vessel meant for the Enoema, one that resembled his alt mode. The Delano 7 then hovered behind the hangar that ship was resting in and blew a hole in it, allowing the other gunship to take off and pick up Kanden.

"So...before we part ways...I think you should find a better bounty hunter name...this is your chance to reinvent yourself after all since pretty much everyone in this facility is dead." Kanden pointed out, narrowing his four eyes at Samuel who pondered this question. He thought about it...and then he remembered his Trylux Drone. To personalize the name...he thought of taking out the T and the R and putting in their place and S...Sylux..."Sylux...yes, that'll fit..." The youth responded, a grin on his face beneath the helmet. "I'd agree...I think I'll join this bounty hunting business...Fighting Frank was the best fun I ever had...I only hope that the universe is filled with more such worthy adversaries." Kanden said as he looked out to the jungle to his left before stepping into his new ship.

"I hope to see you in the field, maybe work with you in the future..." Sylux responded as he entered his new ship and began to copy and upload his old ship's data banks that was stored in his interface suit into his new ship's databanks. He remembered his old life, which had now ended with the severing of the last thread to it following Frank's demise. But in a way, he felt...empty...if no side was really better than the other...was there really anything to fight for now that he had slain his childhood nemesis...but he reminded himself that Frank was most certainly not the only bad apple in the Federation...and he decided that he would root them all out and crush them as his vessel stretched out into infinity and once again slipped off into hyperspace. He journeyed out into the unknown once more, not as Samuel von Sanders the callow youth, but as Sylux the deadly hunter.


	23. Epilogue

After the debacle with Frank, the Federation shut down the Sentinel prime research base and immediately worked to cover up those events of the world of the four shadows that would reflect poorly in the public eye. Due to the fact that most people connected to the project were killed by the vengeful Chozo, this was a rather easy task. But to those major powers who had spies and observers in that base, it became an covert legend. The enemies of the Federation rejoiced in the loss of the Sentinel Prime base, as it set back Federation technology back by years, destroying most of their reverse engineered Chozo technology and forcing them to work with the few scraps that moved out of the base.

The Federation also shut down project Frankenstein, pinning the blame for it's existence on renegade scientists who worked without the sanction of the Federation, and publicly saying that the work of its brave hunters made the need for readymade psychopaths unnecessary. In reality, they only shut it down because it cost too much and virtually all the research on it was destroyed with the base and Frank's death. Kanden was also said to be the work of renegade scientists, all in an attempt to avoid blame. The Federation however, did not publicly state where Sylux had attained his tech, or who he was, the former because the Federation didn't want any further attention on the Sentinel Prime base, and the latter because they honestly didn't know due to the knowledge of Sylux' true identity dying with Frank.

Weavel had suffered terrible injuries at Samus' hand during her zero mission, but was reconstructed using the best technology they could offer, giving him similar capabilities to Samus Aran, with some technical assistance from Sylux at a steep cost. Kanden went on to become a highly successful bounty hunter, competing with Rundas for spot of third most successful registered bounty hunter within a year. He and Sylux remained frequent partners and firm friends. Kanden was a sociopath, he noticed that Sylux fell deep into a pit of cynicism and brutality, but did nothing to help; rather liking what Samuel had become. He always encouraged him to go into further depths of depravity, never wanting the old Samuel to return. Kanden became feared for his mercilessness, his willingness to inflict just about every atrocity short of sexual assault to get the job done, and his sheer implacability.

Sylux aka Samuel von Sanders, never really recovered from the trauma he had suffered, the seed of sociopathy planted in him due to his lack of contact with his fellow humans and healthy relationships blossomed magnificently, if there was any hint of the naive and cheerful boy he once was, it was buried to a depth immeasurable by any instrument known to man. Though he would never admit it, he was to an extent...heart broken. He was undeniably attracted to Samus in his earlier years and he knew she returned those feelings, but was always frustrated when circumstances made it impossible to further the relationship. When four years of pent up frustration came to head and he was confronted with the corpses of his foster family, he blamed her for his misfortune. Thus, what had once been an increasingly warped love became an twisted loathing.

Samus' story is well known, but even as her fame, success, and fortune skyrocketed, she often wondered just where did Samuel go...Most believed that he, or more accurately his SVS alter ego had died in some hyperspace accident, as was the generally accepted story, but she never did buy into that story. She always hoped to meet him again and perhaps repair the burned bridge between them. She also wondered who this Sylux individual was, this...figure who managed to ascend to just behind her on virtually every Bounty Hunter ranking. She would occasionally wonder if this was Samuel, but she dismissed these thoughts as absurd. Samuel had his faults, but he was ultimately a sweet boy who tried to minimize the casualties he inflicted, never resulted to torture, had a rather extensive code of conduct, and would attempt to reimburse his victims. Sylux was a brutal, seemed to relish in using the shock coil even though it caused great agony in those it hit, had a minimalistic code that he frequently broke, and was selfish in the extreme.

But in a year, a crisis would come to fore...a crisis that no one had foreseen, and one that would rock the known universe to it's very core. A crisis of the likes of which had not been seen for millions of years, and would likely never be seen again. Countless would become cold and lost in devastation, and the scale of apocalypse that had beset Cylosis and K-2L would be repeated on world after world. For entire galaxies at a time, Doomsday would arrive. Doomsday that came in the form of an ancient evil that had been gathering it's forces in the distance for aeons, watching, waiting, wanting. Doomsday that would come with ships, soldiers, and tanks in their multitudes.


End file.
